Thousands of dollars that could be spent helping handicapped children instead go to pay truckers and Government dumping fees because people use the charity shop the Bargain Box as a place to drop off junk that will never be sold.

Yesterday, baby prams, a bed frame and a sofa ? none of them in saleable condition ? were left in front of the Serpentine Road second-hand shop and had to be trucked to the Tynes Bay Waste Facility.

?It is disheartening when you have to pay money on trucking away these things that could be spent on a handicapped child,? furious Bargain Box founder Bea Stott said yesterday. ?We send a lot of children away, which is not cheap. We also buy hearing aids and help with their eyesight?.

Mrs. Stott said it cost ?an awful lot? to pay for the disposed items to be transported to the correct disposal facility. Only last week she paid $150 for one truckload to the dump. Some weeks, several truckloads are dumped on their doorstep.

She said the Bargain Box raises an average of $2,000 a week, and if it has to hire a truck once a week, that means 13 percent of their total weekly earnings are spent on moving other people?s garbage instead of on helping the needy.

Not only has the problem has been getting ?worse over the years?, but trucking costs are rising, she said. She was grateful to one trucker who donated his truck to them for free.

Even then, she said Government had to be paid a fee for dumping it.

?I don?t think (Government) should do that as we all work voluntarily here,? she said. ?Every morning, the front door is full of bags. Different people are doing it. They think they are giving us something. We leave signs in place telling people not to leave anything. One morning there were at least half a dozen baby prams dumped outside which were of no use.?

In front of a sign that said ?smile, you?re on candid camera? was an overflowing dumpster, as well as a large pile of large, ruined objects.

?Who is going to buy that?? she asked, pointing to a torn and filthy love seat thrown behind the shop.

She said the large pile ?had come down over the weekend?.

?It is probably good stuff but when it is left to the rain, dogs and scavengers, it is no good.?

She wanted to tell the people who were dumping things not to leave their belongings on their doorstep, unless the store was open. Donations can only be made from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday or from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Tuesday.

It was impossible to keep the shop open longer hours to stop people from illegally dumping she said, because we are having ?great difficulty in getting any volunteers?.