A NEW website that trades children’s clothes and toys has been set up by a Basingstoke mum.

It is called Swaptogs and is the brainchild of Christine Robertson, who runs the site with her partner Tim Hext-Stephens.

The website, which has a community feel, allows users to buy, sell or swap all sorts of items, from school uniforms, children’s shoes, musical instruments, books and furniture.

Christine, who until a few years ago worked full-time in the IT industry, recalls how her children, Nathan and Charlotte, gave her an idea for swaptogs.co.uk.

She said: “My Eureka moment came when they both came home from school one Monday and said, ‘we need an outfit for class on Thursday please.’ “Being new to the area I didn’t have a network of friends I could beg, borrow or steal from and no time to make outfits, so another expensive trip to town had to be made. “The seeds for Swaptogs were planted that day. “I worked with the idea for a while and looked at my experiences of using paid for trading sites like eBay and free groups to decide as a parent what I wanted from a trading site.”

“Paid for sites like eBay looked great on the surface, but were costing too much in additional fees, while all the time bombarding me with adverts.

“I didn’t get the flexibility of how I wanted to trade. “Free sites were slightly better, but nine times out of ten, people didn’t turn up to collect their items, or allow me to buy, swap or sell. “I knew what Swaptogs should offer – a low cost yearly subscription, no adverts in the members account area, fast and easy to use, allowing users to be able to buy, swap and sell, or just give away items.”

Christine said the service is ideal for schools and children’s clubs, so that they can re-cycle their unwanted items, and promote any events they may be running, as well as providing a platform for low cost business advertising.

Swaptogs has teamed up with CLIC Sargent and will be donating five per cent of its membership and advertising fees to the children’s cancer charity at the end of 2014.