Action Station community charity shop broken into in Tyldesley

Just three months after launching along the high street in Tyldesley, the Action Station charity shop is reported to have been forcibly broken into on Monday, July 3.

The Elliott Street charity shop, which donates all of its earnings to community projects in and around Tyldesley, was found with a smashed window and the till missing this morning.

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Anna and Jenny opened the community charity shop on Elliott Street in March (Image: Leigh Journal)

Jenny McAvoy, co-owner of Action Station, said that the incident looks to be the work of "opportunistic" burglars, who are believed to have bricked the shop window and dragged the till out onto the street.

Jenny explained that there were "only coppers" left in the till, but the real damage will be the cost to replace the window and till, as well as the loss of earnings after closing the shop for the day.

"It's just a pointless crime, the damage they've caused is more than they've got away with", Jenny said.

"We can't put shutters on the shop because it's a conservation area, which we love, but there is the worry that it could happen again so we've been looking at how we can make the shop more safe and secure."

All of the money earned at Action Station goes back into the community (Image: Leigh Journal)

Despite the stress of finding the new shop broken into, Jenny said that the community has been extremely supportive on social media and in person, with many neighbouring business owners offering aid and assistance.

After reporting the incident to the police, the volunteer-led team is now looking into what security measures they can put in place to prevent a similar thing from happening again.

The charity shop has been one of the beneficiaries of the Tyldesley Heritage Action Zone and a new shop front (Image: Leigh Journal)

Jenny added: "People have been really supportive so that has really given us heart, and shows that things like this are just done by the minority.

"We aren't an organisation that has spare money lying around, so this has probably set us back a few months in terms of the money we can give away to community projects."

To help with the repair work of the charity shop and enable the team to purchase security measures, a fundraiser has been set up which can be found here.