A CHARITY has appealed to residents to stop dumping unwanted items outside its premises.

Angry Hart Wildlife Rescue trustee Peter Mart said the charity’s shop in the Bank car park constantly falls victim to fly-tippers and the charity has to pay to dispose of the unwanted items.

At at 7pm last Thursday, for example, the shop’s security camera recorded up three people dumping a stained double mattress, a computer desk, three stools, some pieces of wood and two large, filled black bags against a wall. Adding that staff were reluctant to open the bags because they were wary of what they might find, Mr Mart pointed out that it was expensive and time consuming to arrange for the disposal of large items such as mattresses.

He told the Herald: “We have an external security camera and saw the three people who carried the items to our shop – but, unfortunately, we couldn’t see a car or van so there is no way that we can identify them.

“If we could have identified them, we would have reported them to East Hampshire District Council and the police for fly-tipping.”

He continued: “We get many lovely donations from the public that we sell to raise funds for our charity. However, disposing of rubbish actually costs us money.”

Hart Wildlife is not the only charity shop in the town being forced to deal with people’s discarded rubbish, and Mr Mart added: “We are seeing a lot more of this sort of thing.

“I guess because our location means we are a much easier option than taking it to the council dump.”

Household rubbish should be disposed of at Hampshire County Council’s recycling centre in Omega Park business park, off Wilsom Road.

East Hampshire District Council said it “takes its responsibilities towards fly-tipping very seriously and will bring prosecutions against fly-tippers where sufficient evidence can be gathered”.