Abandoned Leeds Festival tents to go to homeless

Supporters of Leeds Homeless Partnership spent Monday and Tuesday gathering up around 60 tents that had been left at the Leeds Festival site.

They also collected around 70 camp mats and 100 sleeping bags as well as camping chairs, clothes and food, which they plan to distribute.

Partnership member Haydn Lee said the items gathered were just a fraction of what had been left at Bramham Park in Wetherby.

“We’re just trying to show that resources can be saved,” he said. “There are probably thousands more tents going to landfill though. There were fields full.”

The group were one of a number given permission by festival organisers to collect camping equipment left behind after the event.

Haydn said: “A lot of teams that go there resell the gear but why can’t it go back to the homeless? People who have got nothing, we’ve got plenty to give them.”

The group runs a weekly street kitchen at Mill Hill Chapel and recently held a public march to highlight the issue of homelessness.

It plans to hand out some of the tents here in Leeds, with the rest being passed on to similar groups across the north of England.

Another salvage team has also donated its tents after learning about the idea.