Yorkshire Coast charity to expand to help with cost of living struggles

Community Furniture Store says many families are not able to provide a decent home environment

Author: Karen LiuPublished 6th Sep 2022

A charity on the Yorkshire Coast which provides affordable furniture is expanding to help families struggling with the cost of living.

The Community Furniture Store on Mount View Business Park in Scarborough says it helps people in poverty have a 'decent home environment'.

The charity is having a major relaunch as part of its expansion. Its store will close from tomorrow (Wednesday 7th September) and re-opens on Saturday 10th at 9.30am.

Manager, Alice Pimm, said: “Our purpose is simply to help local people have affordable, good quality, furniture in their homes. We collect items from all around the Scarborough area, including Whitby, and even collect as far as Bridlington and inland towards Malton. We offer a huge choice of household items from sofas and chairs to tables, desks and beds; we also offer white goods and occasionally one-off items. We recently had a bath donated!”

Rebecca Blues is the Chief Officer of a group of three charities who are based in Scarborough, Selby & York and she said: “The team in Scarborough have worked extremely hard over the past few months to improve the store and provide a great choice for everyone. Our service is even more necessary today given the impact of the rapid increases in the cost of living. Furniture poverty is already a national scandal with many families not able to provide a decent home environment. We can make sure that families have proper beds to sleep on, and tables to eat their food from.”

Graham Mitchell, Chair of Trustees, added: “Following our investment in obtaining extra space we will now be able to offer a better shopping experience and an even greater choice from our stock of furniture & household items on our hugely expanded sales floor. Whilst our prime objective is to help people in need, we are open to anyone who wants a bargain as we need to generate an income in order to cover the charity’s operational costs.

“Because of the extra space, we are also able to offer more work experience places in our furniture workshop, which has relocated to another unit on the same site, and we will be increasing volunteering opportunities soon when we expand collection and delivery services.”

Graham said: “We rely on donations of furniture from people (and businesses) in order to provide a great range of goods on the shop floor. We collect items free of charge, but they must be fit for others to use. By asking us to collect unwanted items you will not only be preventing items from going to landfill but also directly helping local people to have better homes”.

Find out more about the charity on their website or Facebook page.

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