Almost 1300 items that could otherwise have ended up in landfill were contributed to a Rackheath 'Give and Take' day organised by Broadland District Council.

The event at the village hall allowed residents to re-use or recycle unwanted electrical goods, of which 135 were safety tested and taken away for free on the day by people who could make use of them, items such as hoovers, televisions, video recorders, kettles and hair dryers.

All the items that could not be reused, including 205 TV sets and computer monitors, were recycled and all materials recovered.

It brings the total tonnage of unwanted goods collected by the district council since the scheme started in November 2009 to more than 59 tonnes, and the number of appliances taken away by residents for re-use at the last three events to 414.

The council's head of environmental services, Andy Jarvis said: 'We started just holding recycling events across the district, but found we were getting quite a lot of things that still worked, hence introducing this 'Give and Take' element, where people can make use of other people's cast-offs if they are judged to be safe by our electricians.

'We were also very pleased to partner the event with Impact East – a social enterprise involved in offender rehabilitation which is developing an electrical re-use and recycling training programme.

'We are always looking at ways of working with others and meeting our residents' aspirations to recycle more.'

No charge was made for items people took away with them, but a voluntary donations scheme raised �68.45 for the charity nominated by the council's chairman Cllr Tom Gasson, Nelson's Journey.