SWINDON charity shops are appealing for donations to be sorted more carefully.

Electrical items, bicycles, and prams are just some of the goods that cannot be sold due to Goverment health and safety regulations.

They advise against the sales of items that could be faulty and pose a danger risk like the brakes failing on a pushchair.

Chipped china, broken furniture and left over jumble sale items are also consigned to the rubbish tip.

Jeanne Leahy, manager of the Prospect Hospice shop in Gorse Hill, said: "Of course we do not want to bite the hand that feeds. But some of the things we receive simply cannot be sold."

She claims that staff helping sort donations have even been cut by knives included in bags of clothes.

"We are grateful for the huge level of support. Unfortunately dirty crockery, broken lampshades or knives are of no use to us," Mrs Leahy added.

The Prospect Hospice in Wroughton helps people who are seriously ill and has seven charity shops in Swindon.

The hospice has a van, which picks up rubbish from the shops on a daily basis.

It also has its own skip to cope with the volume of rubbish accumulated by the shops.

And it costs £40 to empty the skip, which happens at least once a week.

Hazel Piper, senior manager of the Prospect Hospice shops, said: "We are so grateful for donations and do try very hard not to waste any of them.

"Unfortunately despite having access to household recycling points, we still need a skip which costs us to empty. This, of course, detracts from the point of donations."

So she appealed for goods to be sorted more carefully.

"The last thing we want to do is put people off giving. It is simply a case of increasing awareness of what can be sold," Mrs Piper added.

Prospect Hospice recycles clothes which cannot be sold and some items are sent to developing world countries.

Diana North, a volunteer worker at the Oxfam shop in Regent Street, said: "We accept almost anything, like books, clothes and bric-a-brac providing it is in good condition. When we get saddled with unsaleable items, it costs us money to get rid of them."

And Louise Bartlett, manager of the Cancer Research shop in Havelock Street, added : "Like all charity shops, we get undesirable things. If something fails to sell at a car boot sale, we cannot sell it here."