Offload those unwanted gifts to All Saints Church

All Saints Preservation Trust is making its appeal for unwanted or duplicated Christmas or birthday presents again this year. The independent Trust, set up in 1999 to help fund repair and maintenance of Leighton Buzzard's ancient parish church, will recycle gifts on their stall in Church Square on May Day, turning them into funds for use on the church building or its churchyard.

“Our stall is always a popular one, because what may not suit one person, will be just the item another is looking for!” said a spokesman. “Items can be dropped into Dillamore Furnishers in the High Street at any time during their opening hours, we will then sort and price them and put them on the stall outside the church on 1 May.

“All we ask is that they are new items, in the original packaging, we cannot sell bric-a-brac or used goods”.

The church last year completed a 16-year planned programme of repair following a 1998 architect’s survey which revealed worrying structural problems.

These have now been dealt with, but with a structure as old as All Saints there will always be work to do and attention now is turning towards a roof repair, an overhaul of the organ which has been affected by the dust during the phased work, replacement fan heaters and repairs to the floor of the nave.

More details on www.allsaintspreservationtrust.org.