A SALISBURY couple have spoken of their distress at learning a charity they donated furniture to simply dumped their goodwill in a skip.

Andy and Pat Anderson gave the Burnbake Trust, based in Wilton, 15 items of furniture belonging to Mrs Anderson's late mother.

She was always helping those less fortunate than herself so her family thought their gesture was appropriate.

They even helped staff from the trust, which recycles furniture for needy people, load their lorry. But less than 24 hours later, Mr Anderson discovered that at least five of the pieces, including a nearly-new wardrobe, bureau and video cabinet, had been dumped in a skip.

"I needed to go round to the dump the following day to get rid of a couple of bags of rubbish," said Mr Anderson (49). "So I went down and there was the truck - it had the Burnbake Trust written on the side of it.

"I was a bit surprised but didn't really think too much of it and just got on with dumping my rubbish.

"Then, all of a sudden, I saw my mother-in-law's wardrobe getting hurled out of the truck and into the skip, followed by her bureau, chest of drawers, video cabinet and bed.

"I walked round the back of the truck and every item in there was exactly what I had helped load on the day before."

Mr Anderson said he managed to stop the driver from dumping the rest of the furniture, but said that the incident had proved very upsetting.

"It's really shocked me - how many other people have given stuff in good faith and they've just chucked it in the skip?" he said.

"I would rather somebody had broken into the house and stolen the furniture than see that happening."

Mrs Anderson (48) added: "If they had just said they didn't want it, we could have done a car boot sale, or even given it away, because there was nothing the matter with it.

"But to see my mother's furniture being destroyed was heartbreaking.

"I would hate for anybody else to have to go through the same thing."

Burnbake Trust manager Rita Maple told the Journal they had unfortunately had to dump a couple of the items as they were not in good condition.

She said the driver had noticed this when he went to collect the furniture, but because the relatives were upset he felt he could not refuse them.

"At times we inevitably have to dump items because they are unsuitable, but we didn't mean to cause any distress to the family involved and we have apologised," said Mrs Maple.

She went on to say that, during the last year, the trust had collected furniture from 1,200 addresses in the area and delivered goods to more than 850 people in need.

She also said they now only operated from one site in Wilton when, until recently, it had been three.

"We do feel slightly hard done-by that we have attracted this bad publicity as we work very hard to deliver this service," Mrs Maple added.

"We do not ask for praise or thanks, but occasionally someone will ring and say "thank you", which means a great deal.

"Unfortunately, it's always the adverse publicity that seems to stick in people's minds."