Annual successful Toys on the Table appeal is back for Christmas - here is where to drop items off in Harborough

Harborough District Council is stepping in to back a local radio station staging its annual successful Toys on the Table appeal.

The local authority is acting after Covid-19 restrictions threw HFM’s 2020 Christmas kids’ campaign into serious danger.

Harborough Market, owned by the council, will now serve as an alternative collection point for the appeal.

The council is asking HFM listeners to drop off their new toys to the indoor Market Hall on Northampton Road.

Toys on the Table is a charity working in Leicestershire which has enabled thousands of disadvantaged children to receive Christmas presents over the last few years.

Cllr Phil King, the leader of Harborough council, said: “We are really pleased that we are can support the HFM and Toys on the Table appeal.

“We also thank our Market staff for coming forward to help.

“It is a wonderful campaign that is needed now more than ever, after what has been a difficult year for many people.”

Bill Bowley, of Toys on the Table, said: “We are so grateful to Harborough Market and the council for supporting us this year when things proved difficult for HFM.

“The people of Harborough are always so generous and help to ensure that disadvantaged children across the county have a present to open on Christmas Day when they otherwise would not.”

The charity distributes toys via referrals from social services, foodbanks, schools and women’s aid groups - and it’s already got double the number of referrals it would receive in a normal year.

Last year HFM listeners donated over 3,500 new toys.

The popular radio station is once again urging people to get behind their campaign to try and meet that additional need.

HFM’s Nick Shaw said: “We’re so grateful to Harborough Market for stepping in to be the collection point for the appeal this year.

“It is always so well supported by our listeners - so it is great that they can drop off toys at such a central point in the town.

“We can’t thank the market and all the staff enough for what they are doing on behalf of the disadvantaged children who will benefit from the appeal this year.”

Toys for babies to children aged up to 16 must be new and unwrapped.

They can be dropped off during the lockdown period with market door staff from 8am-3pm Tuesday to Saturday and in the general hall once the current national coronavirus lockdown ends.

The last day for toys to be dropped off at the market is Christmas Eve before 3pm.