THE Rotary Club of Ilkley Wharfedale has once again held their annual recycling collection in Ilkley.

The event on Saturday, October 2 in the main car park was held in association with The Margaret Carey Foundation which collects bicycles, wheelchairs and walking aids and has them refurbished mainly in prisons. This helps prisoners attain a skill and thereby reduce the risk of re-offending. The items are then donated to people in need in the UK and overseas.

Tools for Africa gives new life to unwanted tools and assembles them into kits for carpenters, builders, automotive repairs, dressmakers etc. The charity then distributes these through WorkAid to African countries so that they can start small businesses and support their communities.

Mary’s Meals provide life-changing meals to some of the poorest children every day they attend school and will use the school backpacks for delivering to schools in third world countries. The spectacles are sorted and calibrated again for use in third world countries.

New this year was the collection of unwanted trainers for The Biasan Charity. The charity is collecting trainers for the recent influx of refugees from Afghanistan, many of whom have arrived with just the clothes they stand up in. These will be passed through to the Biasan Charity by an Ilkley U3A craft group.

Items collected amounted to: 124 bicycles; eight wheelchairs; many mobility aids; 12 sewing machines; four carloads of tools; approx 25 rucksacks; approx 40 pairs of trainers; 10 carrier bags full of spectacles.

Over the eight years that the Club has run this event over 1,000 bicycles have been collected.

A rotary spokesperson said: "Thank you to all who participated."