Leading housebuilder Barratt Homes has teamed up with The Parenting Network charity to hand over toy donations for its Toy Appeal to help ensure that all children across the county and beyond have presents to open on Christmas morning.

Barratt and set up collection points across its developments for members of the public to drop off new games and toys ready to be handed over to The Parenting Network to give to children at Christmas.

“We are so grateful for people’s generosity,” said April Gilbert, Chief Operating Officer at The Parenting Network. “We are committed to empowering parents so it was really wonderful to get the gifts unwrapped and offer a pop up shopping experience to parents.

"We set up a wrapping station, put some Christmas music on, dressed up as elves and welcomed parents to pick several gifts for each child. The reactions were pure joy, relief and often tears.

placeholder image — Barratt Homes hands over toy donations

"We were thrilled to give gifts to over 250 children and surplus was donated to Portsmouth City of Sanctuary who have shared the gifts among their children. Thank you so much, it really has made a difference. We hope we can do this again next year.”

Tammy Bishop, Sales Director at Barratt, said: “We were hoping members of the public would give generously but we were overwhelmed by people’s response to this appeal. We’d like to thank everyone who donated a toy, game or book and took the time to drop them off at our collection points.

“We wanted to help ensure that every child has something to open on Christmas morning and thanks to The Parenting Network and the generosity of everyone who responded to our call for donations, we’ve been able to go the extra mile. I think Santa would be proud!”

Barratt Homes is building new developments across Hampshire, including Pebble Walk on Hayling Island and Harbour Place in Bedhampton.