VOLUNTEERS are being urged to come forward to safeguard the future of the Phoenix Toy Library.

The weekly group, which has been running for 25 years, meets at Freshbrook Community Centre, in Worsley Road and stocks a wide range of toys including Duplo, Play Mobil and Fisher Price items which families can borrow for a month.

The toy library runs between 10am and noon every Friday, with children welcome to borrow up to five items at a time.

Run by five volunteers, the group is keen to hear from others who may be able to help out as committee members to share the responsibility. Chairman Gwen Randall first started attending 10 years ago with her children, Bob, now 15, Sam, 11, and nine-year-old Annabelle.

As the children grew older, she continued to help out and became chairman three years ago.

She said: “We are quite desperate for new volunteers.

“We’ve always been run by parents who use the service but we’ve noticed the numbers drop recently.

“So we’d be happy to welcome anyone who’d be able to help, whether they use the service or not. We’d like to recruit nice friendly people of all ages who can help out with setting up the library, baking cakes for our visitors, tidying, hiring out toys and doing administration.

“It is great that we’ve got a loyal group at present but it would be nice to have a few fresh faces.”

The library, primarily aimed at children under five, is a popular resource and lots of families attend their weekly sessions, she said.

Annual membership costs £8 per family, with the weekly sessions costing £1 for each adult.

Gwen said: “We are really proud of the toy library.

“It is great for families who have just moved to the area as it is a good way to get to know people and get established in Swindon.

“We also understand that young children can be fickle and that they change favourite toy from one week to the next, so the toy library means that parents don’t have to buy toys which their child might quickly go off.

“In general, the library sessions are a really good social opportunity for parents and children.

“We are very casual and people are welcome to stay for as long or as little as they like.”

Anyone who wishes to volunteer with Phoenix Toy Library can call Gwen on 01793 331548.