SHOPPERS are being offered an amnesty on their plastic bags.

It’s part of a Kirklees Council campaign to rid the district of environmentally-damaging carriers.

The amnesty will take place at Huddersfield Farmers’ Market on May 11.

Clr Ann Denham of Almondbury announced the move on Tuesday.

She said: “It’s the next stage of bringing people onboard with the campaign.

“We really want people to have their own fabric bag so they don’t have to use a plastic one. That’s the way we used to do our shopping years ago and we need to get back to that.

“We’re thinking of offering one cloth bag for every ten plastic bags handed in, but that’s not confirmed yet.”

The council also plans to send a re-useable bag to all 26,000 homes in Almondbury, Dalton, Newsome, Crosland Moor and Netherton this month.

The anti-plastic bag campaign was launched at the Farmers’ Market last Sunday.

The event included a bag-making stall run by textile students at Huddersfield University.

There was also a presentation to King James’s High School, South Crosland Junior School and Stile Common Infant and Nursery School at Newsome, who won a competition to create designs for the campaign.

Several Huddersfield retailers already back the campaign, including Peters, Next and Beaverbrooks.

In December 2007, Kirklees Council voted to become the first urban area of England to attempt to phase out plastic bags.

People in the district use 115 million plastic bags a year.

If the campaign is successful Huddersfield will be the biggest town in the country to go plastic bag-free.