A local charity in Bexley has come up with a new way to help the homeless stay warm, recycling old crisp packets and turning them into sleeping bags.

Charities Howbury Friends and Slade Green Big Local are driving the idea, and are now appealing to the public to donate their crisp packets.

The number of people from homelessness in SE London has jumped up in recent years, according to figures from Shelter, and with not enough sleeping bags to go around the charities say they need "as many donations as possible."

The makeshift sleeping bags are waterproof on the outside whilst the foil on the inside keeps them warm.

Mel Hudson, the woman responsible for bringing the idea to Slade Green, said the idea came about as a result of their homeless sock drive.

The charities run a daily food bank together, and then once a month run a swap shop, encouraging people to donate a new pair of socks and other daily essentials to the homeless.

Following this, Mel came across a lady abroad who had started up a business making sleep bags outside of crisp packets.

Intrigued, they looked around online and found some models of the sleeping bags.

Following an initial appeal, the team are now starting to make their first sleeping bags.

It takes 150 crisp packets to make one sleeping bag, with the cleaned packets being ironed together and then coated in plastic to make the finished product.

Mel is now appealing for more donations from the public,

She said: "Please help us to help the homeless by collecting crisp packets large and small and turning them into sleeping bags.

Each one takes 150 packets so we need as many as possible."

If you'd like to donate, please send the crisp packets, ideally washed, to St Augustines Church Hall, in Slade Green, Erith.