A FIVE-tonne mountain of donations to clothe and provide shelter for Nepal earthquake victims may never leave Britain, it has emerged.

While half of the aid, from collections across Yorkshire and the North-East, that was stockpiled at a church near Northallerton for more than a month, has been shipped to Nepal, thousands of remaining items could be sent for recycling in the coming weeks unless funds can be rapidly raised to transport them.

Organisers of the appeal, which was launched by the Nepalese community in Catterick Garrison following an earthquake which killed more than 7,000 people in April, said they had paid £5,000 to ship five tonnes of donations, which were being distributed in Nepal by aid agencies, including Save The Children and the Red Cross.

Hollybush Fellowship Church pastor Jim Wilkinson said the donations would need to be moved imminently as the barns they are being kept in were needed to store hay being harvested shortly.

Mr Wilkinson, 85, said: "It would be terrible if these donations could not go to Nepal where they are desperately needed."

While the Nepalese Embassy continues to contest claims its government is charging import taxes on donations given through aid agencies, one appeal organiser, who asked not to be named, said they had negotiated paying the Nepalese government 15 per cent tax on the aid they had already sent, which equated to £1,100.

He said the shipping problem partly stemmed from 90 per cent of the donations being items that were not needed in Nepal, so a significant proportion of the remaining five tonnes would probably be recycled for cash to send to Nepal as they faced paying £1,000 a tonne to ship the goods.

He said: "There has been a tremendous amount of progress, but we can only progress at the rate of people's generosity."

British Gurkhas and Nepalese Community chairman Captain Ram Malla, of Catterick Garrison, said he believed many of the issues with getting the aid delivered related to misinterpretations, which had unfairly tarnished his native country's reputation.

He said the only outstanding issue was finding the shipping costs, and while the Nepalese community had raised £17,000 following the earthquake, that was tied to a project to build a school in a devastated area.

Capt Malla added: "We are very conscious about the money."

Mr Wilkinson said anyone wishing to donate funds for the shipping costs, could send them to the church, a registered charity, through its account at HSBC Northallerton; sort code 40-35-03, account number 31002643.