OVER 40 "illegal" clothing banks have been removed from streets of the district by Bradford Council in the past month.

Some of the bins were found to contain needles and others had been badly damaged by arson attacks.

The authority says such bins are often installed on sites without the landowner's permission, and can block footways.

The shocking number of illegal clothing banks was revealed at a meeting of the Council on Tuesday night.

Councillor Tariq Hussain (Lab, Great Horton) had asked what work the Council was doing to enforce against "dangerously and illegally placed clothing bins across the district."

He said there had been a number of such unauthorised bins in his ward.

He was told that in the past two years 65 "unauthorised and illegal" clothing banks had been confiscated, including 40 in the last month alone.

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The Council added: "These were all placed without the owner’s consent and/or the relevant permissions and often blocked footways and caused obstructions. They also attracted anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping.

"The highway enforcement team at the council have recovered over one and a half tonnes of reusable textiles which were donated to BIU Group, the textile recycling partner for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

"The funds raised will be used to support their life saving service. BIU Group support a number of other charities which includes the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Francis House Children’s Hospice and 13 other charities.

"Around a tonne of rubbish was also removed from the clothing banks including, broken toys, old bedding, odd shoes, food, books, soiled clothing and needles. A further two tonnes of rubbish was also removed from the streets around the clothing banks.

"Eight of the clothing banks were unidentifiable as being connected with any charity and three had been damaged by fire.

"All unclaimed clothing banks will be recycled for scrap metal by the council after one month."

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said: “We have received a number of complaints about these illegal and unauthorised clothing banks. They are often placed blocking footways or on private property without the owner’s consent or the relevant permissions and some have even been stolen from other areas.

“We have made numerous efforts to deal with this in an informal way and in most cases the clothing bank are removed, however they tend to appear in other locations causing the same issues again.

“No-one really knows where the items in these illegal clothing bins end up, but most of the time they don’t benefit charity. The fact we’ve also cleared up several tonnes of fly-tipping as part of this crackdown shows how much of a blight they can be on a street.”

Tim Cooper, General Manager at BIU Group, said: “We are delighted that Bradford Council has been able to recover textiles from these illegal clothing banks. The funds raised will go towards helping to support the vital work of our charity partners.”

The Council advises that if people want to donate their unwanted clothing the best thing to do is either to take them to their local charity shop for resale, take them to their local household waste site, where they will be recycled or use a legal clothing bank from a properly registered charity.