RESIDENTS are being invited to recycle their Christmas trees to support a hospice and the environment.

St Luke's Hospice in Winsford is organising their annual collection to turn trees into woodchips to be used on the area's country parks.

Andy Bailey, corporate partnerships manager for St Luke’s Hospice, said: “Nobody enjoys the arduous task of chopping up the tree and taking it to the tip with the inevitable pine needles going all over the car, so the Christmas tree collection is a great way of supporting our charity whilst helping the local environment too.”

In 2018, 53 volunteers travelled around 550 miles to collect some 2,500 trees, which raised more than £30,000 in donations.

Households across the CW1 to CW11 postcode district can register now to have their trees collected by hospice volunteers from January 10 to 13, 2019.

Each year,various local voluntary groups lend practical support to the campaign and these organisations receive 10 per cent of all funds raised.

The tree collection is poised to be the biggest yet, thanks to the support of national housebuilder Redrow Homes.

Andy added: “The sponsorship from Redrow means we are now able to reach out and make more people aware of the campaign. "It’s estimated that 15,000 real trees are bought by residents in our area and at the moment we are only collecting and recycling 15 per centof them – so we know there is great potential to make the scheme an even bigger success.”

Dave Bexon, Redrow group sales and marketing director, said: “Supporting the hospice’s Christmas tree collection service is our way of saying thank you for everything they do.

"Christmas is the season of goodwill and those who sign up for the collection service will be giving something back not just to the hospice, but to the environment as well.

"The latter is very important to Redrow too. Building responsibly and being environmentally aware is one of three key pillars of our business: 99.9 per cent of the timber we use on site is responsibly sourced and credibly certified; and we currently recycle over 95% of our waste across the business.”

Residents can register to have their tree collected at charityxmastreecollection.com

St Luke’s Hospice cares for adults living in mid and south Cheshire who are suffering from cancer and other life limiting illnesses.

Family members including children and carers who are affected by the diagnosis both pre and post bereavement are also given support.

St Luke’s is a charity funded by voluntary contributions and has to raise £8,152 each day to enable the hospice to provide free care and support to local people.

For every £1 donated, 85p goes to patient care, while the remaining 15p helps to raise another pound.