VOLUNTEERS and staff from Wirral Hospice St John’s will be collecting used real Christmas trees after the festive period.

From Friday, January 13, volunteers will drive vans around the local borough and pick up trees from outside people’s homes and businesses using a pre-planning postcode route.

The hospice is asking people to make donations relative to the size of their tree. £8.71 under 5ft, £9.42 , £21.53 for between 5ft and 8ft, and £24.84 over 8ft.

Elaine Connell, Wirral Hospice St John’s fundraising officer, told the Globe: “We’ve got our fingers crossed for another bumper year of Christmas tree collections, the generous donations make a huge difference to the lives of so many people with life-limiting illnesses in our Wirral community.

“A small army of people give up their valuable time, and also the use of their vans, year after year, to help with the used Christmas tree collections.

"It’s always a lot of fun for our hardy volunteers and we are so grateful to them and everyone who books a collection with us.

“We’re also so very thankful to all those brilliant companies and organisations who lend a hand, equipment, or space.”

Residents are asked to leave their used pine, fir, or spruce tree in an accessible spot outside their house or business for volunteers to collect.

Once each van is fully loaded with trees, it is driven to various pre-arranged temporary drop-sites around Wirral to offload for chipping.

The chipped trees have further recycled uses, maybe in biofuel or spread around at community farms and paddocks. Other small local charities also receive around ten percent of the monies raised.

Postcodes covered by Wirral Hospice St John’s tree collection include, CH41, CH42, CH43, CH44, CH45, CH46, CH47, CH48, CH49, CH60, CH61, CH62, CH63, CH64.

To register a tree for collection people can book online at www.wirralhospice.org/treecollection or call 0151-343-0778.