WHETHER he is watching TV, listening to CDs, or watching his grandchildren play with their toys, David Cross can boast he has never paid a penny for dozens of items in his home.

From washing machines and spare parts, to televisions and stereos, the founder of the Wallingford Freecycle group has been able to use the online swapshop to find free items that other people no longer want.

The Internet community has proved such a hit in the town that since forming less than five years ago, it has just signed up its 5,000th member.

Mr Cross, of Ilges Lane, Cholsey, set up Wallingford Freecycle on December 9, 2005, for people living within a 10-mile radius of the town.

On average, almost three people a day have signed up since then and Mr Cross estimates between 5,000 and 10,000 items have changed hands.

He said: “It’s not so much an exchange site as a giveaway site. If you offer something, you do not expect anything in return.

“The idea is you try to minimise the mileage you do to get anything, but if I’m looking for a particular spare part, I might get it from an Oxford Freecycle member if nobody in Wallingford has it.”

Freecycle was founded in Tuscon, Arizona, in the US in 2003, and now has more than seven million members belonging to nearly 5,000 groups worldwide.

Members can advertise stuff they want to get rid off, or request items they want.

Among the things changing hands around Wallingford in recent weeks were cake dishes, cameras, garden tools, electronic organs, pianos, music stereos and washing machines.

Mr Cross said: “There’s an awful lot of TVs gone to the tip when there’s still a lot of life in them, because people are upgrading to flat screens.

“I got a TV someone was getting rid of a year-and-a-half ago, and it’s a lovely television. We’re very proud of it.”

Old computers, often thought to be useless, are sought after by local clubs who want to keep their accounts up to date or produce a newsletter, he added.

Mr Cross said: “I’m the sort of person who doesn’t put anything out unless I’ve thought whether there’s any possible use for it.

“Freecycle is about admitting the fact there’s too much waste in the world.”