A REDDITCH charity shop which has been in the town for more than 10 years could be forced to close due to a lack of volunteers.

Oxfam in Market Place shut its doors to the public for the first time last Wednesday as the volunteer shortage hit crisis point.

And manager Jayne Bingham fears the store will have to move out of the town despite being so popular with shoppers.

She said: "To be honest there are so many charity shops in Redditch and we are having real problems with volunteers. We are just not getting them coming through."

The few volunteers who work at the Redditch branch have been struggling to cope for a while and Mrs Bingham said it was an extremely difficult time for them.

She said: "Last Wednesday we had real problems. I was at a meeting and one volunteer called in sick so we had to close.

"It just needs one volunteer to be off sick or on holiday and the shop has to close. We are also tending to close at lunchtime so the volunteers can have a break. This is not a good thing because the shop tends to be busy.

"And sometimes we have got to close early because the volunteers have other commitments, so we are not making the most of business hours."