A Prestbury man has spoken of his disappointment at having a charity box stolen from the book exchange he had set up in response to the library closing during the lockdown.

Scott Scanlon, who owns 'The Salon Prestbury' with his partner Michael, set up the book exchange outside his business in the village centre in an effort to raise money for the blood cancer charity, Myeloma UK in honour of his mum.

Scott told Macclesfield Nub News why he set up the exchange: "My mum was diagnosed with myeloma 11 years ago and was given 18 months but she managed to battle on for 10 more years, which they were pretty amazed at; but she got sepsis last June and passed away.

"We chose Myeloma UK as the charity for The Salon, so we were just doing different things to raise money and then when lockdown started the local library closed. I also sell antiques and I had boxes of books that were going to go to the charity shop, but they obviously closed, so we started a book exchange from outside The Salon."

The exchange had been successfully running throughout most of the lockdown and there was around £95 when he collected the charity box the first time.

On Saturday (30 May), Scott went to collect the funds for a second time only to discover that the charity box had been taken.

Scott said: "I posted about it on the Prestbury community Facebook page and someone had said it was there at 1:30pm, so it must have been taken during the day. There's a couple of people checking CCTV."

He said some people pointed the finger of blame at a homeless person who was based closed to the salon, but Scott was keen to stress he does not think it was him.

"I actually know the homeless guy and I know it wouldn't have been him. He just comes to the village as it's a safe place to stay. And if you'd pinched money from a charity box, you wouldn't go to sleep on the bench across the road from it," Scott said.

Scott described feeling "very pissed off" when he discovered the theft and has closed down the book exchange.

Despite the setback, he said he was happy with how the community responded to the exchange.

"When I opened the donation box the first time, there were people donating £20 for an old book, which was very generous. People were dropping their own books off and picking up a book that they wanted. It was only a little bookshelf, but it got a lot of attention," Scott said.

The remaining books are being donated to another resident who is collecting them for charity.

The police have been contacted about the incident and CCTV of the area is being examined. If you have any information on the theft, you can contact the police on 101 and quote IML719863.