A supermarket in Ashford will convert it's car park into a festive drive-in cinema to raise money for a children's hospital ward.

The Christmas classic Elf will be shown at 7pm in the car park at Tesco Park Farm on Sunday with free popcorn and chocolates for the 70 vehicles attending.

This event was organised by staff at Kingsnorth Parish Council who approached Tesco to ask if its car park could be used following the success of the drive-in movie night in Kingsnorth Playing Fields in August.

Tesco agreed and the £5 tickets sold out via the council’s Facebook page within hours.

All funds raised by the drive-in will go to the Padua Children's Ward at the William Harvey Hospital.

Nick Fox, Store Manager at Tesco Park Farm, said: “We were really pleased to help with such a great idea.

“It’s clearly an excellent thing to do for the residents. It’s been a tough year for many people, so we’re really glad to be able to use our facilities for a community event that brings lots of families together.

“For the funds to be going to the Padua Children's Ward is superb too. We have supported the ward for many years. They do amazing work there.

“This drive-in shows how different organisations working together can do so much for our wonderful community.”

The site will open at 6.30pm, with the film beginning at 7pm. On-site toilets will also be available.

People in each vehicle will collect a set of headphones for every member of their group which will then be returned after the film.

Peter Le Rossignol, a manager at Kingsnorth Parish Council, said: “We’re the biggest parish in Kent, with about 18,000 residents, and we wanted to give something back to them.

“We had a similar event at the Kingsnorth Playing Fields in August and it was really popular, so having a drive-in for Christmas was something we were keen to do.

“We’ve had such a great response since we publicised it, and we’re really pleased that Tesco have been so on board with it.

“Because it’s proved very popular, we’ll have a look at this and see if we can do it again next year.”