Burnley laundrette to offer free laundry service to the homeless

The Free Laundry Project, run in conjunction with Community Reach UK, is encouraging those in need to visit Briercliffe Laundrette on Wednesdays between 10am and noon to get their washing done for free.

Mohammed Shah, who took over the laundrette in Briercliffe Road two months ago, said he wanted to give something back after being inspired by a friend.

"I actually have a launderette in Whitefield, Manchester," said Mr Shah, who lives in Ormerod Road, Burnley. "In Whitefield there are a lot of homeless shelters. A good friend of mine works with the homeless in Manchester. He would collect clothes from them and bring them in to be washed. Once I got to know it was for the homeless I decided to offer a free service.

"I bought the launderette in Burnley two months ago. It was quite run down so I've spent the last couple of months doing some refurb on it. Now I've got it up to a good standard again I want to offer the same service here.

"I'm going to have to go off trust for the first few weeks because there's no way of vetting people who are homeless. I think there's a need for it. There's a lot of people who need help and I just want to do my bit."