Mum gets a free car (From This Is Lancashire)

Mum gets a free car

4:02pm Tuesday 2nd May 2006 in

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MUM Lisa Brooks got a free car . . . simply by asking for it.

Recycling enthusiast Lisa could not believe her eyes when she spotted the car on the Bolton Freecycle website.

The Freecycle scheme recycles unwanted items by offering them to other people who really need them.

Lisa put her name forward for the car along with several other people and was thrilled when she was chosen to receive it.

Now she is the owner of an F-registration Toyota estate car.

She said: "I told the owner I needed it to take around my two primary school age children, whom I educate myself, and he thought it would go to a good home.

"And it's been just brilliant." said a delighted Lisa, who lives in Horwich.

Lisa is among more than 600 people in the Bolton area who use the service.

The Freecycle system was set up by a group of friends in Arizona four years ago as a non-profit making organisation The movement quickly spread across America, crossed the Atlantic and now has thousands of UK membersand more than a million members across the world.

Freecycle involves registering on a website and then submitting either your contribution of an item you no longer need or your request for something you need. Members respond by email.

Apart from a car, items have ranged range from a pram to a bird cage, a chest of drawers to baby clothes and a piano to a fridge-freezer.

All items have to be freely given, nothing dangerous or illegal can be offered or requested, and the environmentally friendly group also wants transactions done without using the post and by using the least amount of fuel.

Joanne Aspinall, of Daubhill, is the "moderator" of Bolton Freecycle.

"The idea is not just to save on landfill sites by recycling items, but to encourage everyone to use second-hand goods rather than buying new saving manufacturing costs and energy and to try to offer them locally so that it also saves on transport costs," she said.

Since the start of the year, Joanne has put on items including a bed, her young daughter's outgrown clothes, a highchair and a quilt. She has received a bookshelf, futon, lamp, fridge-freezer and a coffee-maker.

Now, she is hoping the group can work alongside Bolton Council's recycling team to complement its efforts.

And as a social off-shoot, the local group is already turning itself into a new community of friends and has just started a cafe group which is meeting for social events.

"Recycling makes sense, for the environment and for people," said Lisa. "It certainly worked for me I got a car!"

l To find out more about Bolton Freecycle, visit www. boltonfreecycle.org.uk and to find out about the cafe group, www.boltonfreecyclecafe.org.uk