Community group helps families with Halloween cost

East Marsh United will offer affordable Halloween costume hire to families in Grimsby and the surrounding area

A community group in North East Lincolnshire is offering a Halloween costume hire scheme to make trick or treating more affordable for families.

East Marsh United, based in Grimsby, will lend outfits for £3 each time before taking them back, washing them and putting them out for reuse.

The costumes will be available on Tuesdays from 13:00 to 15:00 BST at Freeman Street Market.

Sue Baker, the group community outreach lead, said: "We're about helping the local people here. If we can provide somebody with a Halloween outfit for three rather than £20 it's a way of making it do-able."

The new costumes have been donated to East Marsh United by Tape2Tape, the company which organises the annual Cleethorpes half marathon and Grimsby 10k running events.

Ms Baker added: "We are really grateful for the donations and we wanted people to be able to enjoy them."

Stacey Sarjantson lives in the East Marsh area of Grimsby and said the hire scheme would be a "massive help"

In addition to the costumes which include witches and ghosts, people will also be able to hire a range of masks, makeup and accessories.

Mum Stacey Sarjantson who lives in the East Marsh said: "This is going to help a lot of people in the area who can't afford a full blown outfit.

"Halloween can cost a lot of money once you've got the outfits, sweets and decorations so this will be a massive help to families who don't have a lot of money."

Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.

Download the BBC News app from the App Store for iPhone and iPad or Google Play for Android devices