A CHARITY has thanked a town council for their support which helped them collect more than a thousand trees to raise thousands of pounds.

Farleigh Hospice, who focus on helping those with life limiting illnesses, ran a Christmas Tree Recycling event in December where trees were collected following Christmas and recycled to help raise funds for their cause.

Burnham Town Council allowed use of their council offices to store the trees.

In a letter read out at a council meeting last week, Farleigh Hospice fundraising manager Debbie de Boltz said: “A huge thank you to Burnham Town Council for the support of our Christmas Tree Recycling event and allowing us to use the town council building.

“We collected in excess of 1,400 trees and this has raised more than £12,000 – a truly fantastic amount of money.

“Without the council’s support we certainly could not have managed to raise such a significant amount.”

This was the charity’s third year running the campaign. In their first year, only 400 trees were collected. They have plans to grow the event again next year to include the Braintree district.

Debbie added: “The whole weekend was fun, hard work and tiring but extremely fulfilling with some very funny incidents being reported.

“Thank you Burnham Town Council for your support, it is appreciated by everyone at Farleigh Hospice.”