There was a whole lot of love in Surrey Street Market on Valentine’s Day as the council gave cash-saving tips on food waste.

Around 500 people visited their stall, with 200 people signing the ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ pledge.

The event had a popular food-efficient cooking demonstration running throughout the day and people were given recipes and a variety of food-saving kitchen gadgets.

Soul-singer, Alison Plant, added to the Valentine’s Day theme by serenading market shoppers.

Councillor Phil Thomas, cabinet member for highways and environmental services, said: “We all know that a huge amount of food gets thrown away without any real reason.

“This is something that needlessly costs billions of pounds a year.

“We want everyone to keep using their food waste bins when they have to, but what our event was promoting was how easy it can be to reduce waste and therefore save money.”

On Valentine’s Day the council’s community recycling team gave cash-saving tips on how to waste less food to almost 500 people who visited their stall on Surrey Street Market.

And nearly 200 signed the ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ pledge to make their food go further and try to save as much as £50 a month as a result.