Charities dump toys under EC directive

Sackfuls of second-hand toys are being destroyed by Oxfam and the Save the Children Fund because of government red tape.

The charities have instructed their shops to stop selling second- hand toys because of the Department of Trade and Industry's Draconian interpretation of a European Community directive. New regulations issued by the DTI about the safety standards required of second-hand toys have so confused and intimidated them that they have decided they cannot afford the risk of prosecution. Perfectly good toys, which the shops used to sell to families who could not afford new ones, are being turned away. Any toys left in bags on the shops' doorsteps are either being dumped or left for refuse trucks.

Patience Owen, a mother of two from west London, took along a box of her daughters' used toys to an Oxfam shop in Westbourne Grove on Monday, but they were rejected. Mrs Owen had been distressed by pictures of starving children in Somalia and felt that giving some of her children's toys to charity would be their small way of helping. But even though the toys were in good working order, she was told they could not be accepted unless they carried a 'CE' EC safety standards mark.

Under an EC directive, since January this year shops can only sell new toys if they carry the CE safety mark. The regulations do not cover second-hand toys sold for charitable purposes, but the DTI's safety regulations cover all new and second-hand goods. After the EC directive came into effect, DTI officials issued instructions warning charities that their second-hand toys must carry the CE safety mark, unless they could prove the goods were made before 1990.

Mrs Owen said: 'It seems ludicrous charities can't sell toys without this EC safety mark. The manageress showed me sackfuls that would simply have to be trashed.'

Oxfam has written to the DTI asking for charities to be treated as a special case. A spokeswoman said: 'Many of our volunteers have complained about having to turn away toys. It's upsetting for them and for the donors, and it's a horrible waste.'