An estimated £27,500 worth of toys were donated by Salford residents in this year's Santa Appeal.

For one week, locals left toys out with their rubbish for Salford binmen to collect. Residents were asked to leave small, unwrapped gifts suitable for children aged up to 16 with any bin or food caddy collected between December 3 and December 6.

As part of the appeal crews wore hi vis jackets and Santa hats to collect mountains of toys, games, teddies and dolls.

The 6,000 items collected were sorted by volunteers from Rotary in Worsley and distributed to kids.

This year's toy haul is a record for the Santa appeal, beating last year's sum of 5,000 toys.

Sam Barry came up with the idea last year and was 'grateful' to Salfordians who took part in this year's appeal.

Members of Rotary in Worsley helped with sorting and distributing the toys.

"I know many families going through tough times so when I suggested the idea to the lads, they couldn't do enough to help," he said.
"We are so grateful to all the wonderful people of Salford and Rotary in Worsley who have helped make Christmas special for local children and young people."

City Mayor Paul Dennett also thanked everyone who supported the appeal by donating or helping run it.
"Once again I'm overwhelmed at the kindness of the people of Salford," said the Mayor.
"We asked them to help make sure children in our city didn't miss out on Christmas and their generosity is simply amazing.
"This is not just the spirit of Christmas, but also the spirit of Salford."

Tony Clayson, President of Rotary in Worsley said the organisation was delighted to help.
"Rotary is all about giving back to the community and it was wonderful to see the sheer volume of presents that had been donated.
"We had to pull in extra volunteers to cope but we were delighted to do so."