Salvation Army Captains Darlene and Dale Murray are “extremely irritated” at the daily dumping of rubbish and unsellable goods at the front and rear of the store.

The illegal disposal of waste at the store has been a continuing problem since Christmas, Mr Murray says. 

“We are coming in every day to piles of rubbish … we have to do trips to the tip numerous times a day,” Mr Murray said. “Nothing’s changing.”

Not only does this take hours of labour each day to remove, but the Salvation Army has lost volunteers.

 “This has a big flow-on effect and it impacts quite significantly on overall operations,” Mr Murray said.  “It’s taking time away from things we could be doing for the community here … we are clearing away rubbish when we could be helping people in a more pro-active way.”

The Salvation Army captain said theft had become a serious issue, with people riffling through the donations left overnight or over the weekend. 

“If people need some help come and see us, don’t steal our goods because we actually need them in order to provide the services that we do here in Armidale,” Mr Murray said. 

However, Mr Murray said he was grateful for any donated goods.

 “We thank people for donations but we ask people just to consider what they’re donating and whether it is something that they would purchase themselves,” he said. 

“The best time to donate goods is business hours Monday to Friday, between 9.30am and 4.30pm.”