Video: Clothes mountain raising cash for Craven Arms pre-school

Becky Dhieb will be turning the cast-off clothes into cash, to buy equipment and toys for her children's pre-school.

The mother-of-three suggested the idea to members of Craven Arms Childcare and Pre-School committee after hearing about a national scheme that pays by the kilo for unwanted garments.

The idea has sparked a major drive by the committee, staff and parents to get the people of Craven Arms to raid their wardrobes – and has proved more successful than they imagined.

"I can't see out of the window," said Mrs Dhieb, 31, of Station Crescent. "We have distributed bags to parents of our children attending pre-school, as well as the wider community in Craven Arms.

"We are currently two weeks into this project and have already been donated more than 72 bags full of unwanted clothes, shoes and toys.

"They've been dropping them off at the school, but now they're all at my house. It is quite a lot."

Mrs Dheib's daughter Sabrina, two, is currently at the pre-school based at Craven Arms Community Centre, but her older children Jacob, seven, and Jasmine, 12, also went there.

After such a long association with the nursery as a parent, she decided it was time to join the committee, and spotted a scheme by a Yorkshire-based business to give money to schools in exchange for recycled clothes.

Bag2School, based in Northallerton, works with over 20,000 schools to raise money for school PTAs and clubs, collecting unwanted textiles in good condition which are then sold to export markets worldwide where they are sorted and then sold to the general public.

The company collects throughout the UK and since starting in 2001 has paid out more than £19 million to participating schools, colleges, nurseries, pre-schools, playgroups and also works with cubs, scouts, brownies, guides and sports clubs.

It pays 50p per kilo of clothes or £500 per tonne. With a tonne being about 120 bags, the committee already have about £300-worth of donated clothes.