Jock's Lodge Salvation Army donation bins overflowing with clothes

There are clothes strewn across the ground.

Clothes are overflowing from the Salvation Army donation bins in Jock’s Lodge.

The bins, outside the Salvation Army Donation Centre at 40 Portobello Road, have been filled with bags of donations in the past week.

There are now clothes and shoes, most of them without bags, covering the area of tarmac in front of the bins and the grassy patch behind them.

Clothes were seen strewn around the Jock's Lodge depot. Picture: Allan Crow

The donation centre is closed in line with government guidance, and signs had been put up by the charity.

However a spokesperson said the closed signs had been removed and members of the public continued to leave clothes and other donations at the site.

These donations will go to landfill as they cannot be collected.

A lot of the clothes were left on the grass. Picture: Allan Crowe

Chris Jestico, Head of Retail for Salvation Army Trading Company, said: “In line with Government guidance we have had to temporarily halt our collections.

“The Edinburgh donation centre put up 'Closed' signs but these were removed and, like many clothing banks across the UK, donation sites have become overwhelmed with donations. “The welfare of our staff, volunteers, customers and communities remains our highest priority.

“We cannot collect and process the donations to the Edinburgh donation centre during the lock down as it is closed and we urge people not to leave donations by our clothing banks.“Any items left outside clothing banks and shops will go to landfill. We ask that donors keep hold of their donations until after the government restrictions are lifted and the donation centre reopens.

“The money we raise from donations is helping those hardest hit by the coronavirus and we simply don’t want items generously donated to go to waste.”