OPERATION Christmas Child organiser Steve Lloyd is disappointed that a new co-ordinator for the Devizes area could not be found in time for this year's collection.

But he said that people who usually take items to be packed into boxes over a weekend in November at St Andrew's Church can take goods to the Wiltshire Times office in Duke Street, Trowbridge. Already packed boxes can be dropped at Haine and Smith opticians in The Brittox.

He said: "It is disappointing that we have not been able to recruit a co-ordinator and that means the usual packing weekend at St Andrew's will not happen this year.

"But we will be collecting on a weekly basis from the Wiltshire Times and any knitted items, toiletries and other goods can be collected by us from there. If any organisations have a large number of boxes we can also arrange collection."

Last year more than 330 boxes were filled at St Andrew's Church and a huge quantity of goods such as hygiene items, soft toys, games, colouring books, crayons, knitted hats, scarves, mittens were donated and sent to the warehouse in Warminster to fill many more boxes.

Many schools in Devizes hold their own shoe box collections and make their own arrangements for them to go directly to the Wiltshire headquarters.