diff --git a/lib/OpenLayers/Format/GeoRSS.js b/lib/OpenLayers/Format/GeoRSS.js
index 8f15415724..406cf42dec 100644
--- a/lib/OpenLayers/Format/GeoRSS.js
+++ b/lib/OpenLayers/Format/GeoRSS.js
@@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ OpenLayers.Format.GeoRSS = OpenLayers.Class(OpenLayers.Format.XML, {
         var eles = this.getElementsByTagNameNS(node, nsuri, name);
         if(eles && eles[0] && eles[0].firstChild
             && eles[0].firstChild.nodeValue) {
-            value = eles[0].firstChild.nodeValue;
+            value = OpenLayers.Format.XML.prototype.getChildValue(eles[0]);
         } else {
             value = (def == undefined) ? "" : def;
         }
diff --git a/tests/Format/GeoRSS.html b/tests/Format/GeoRSS.html
index 95d3ba99d9..5cea1ae627 100644
--- a/tests/Format/GeoRSS.html
+++ b/tests/Format/GeoRSS.html
@@ -73,6 +73,15 @@
             t.xml_eq(out, expected_result, "Output gave expected value");
         }
     }
+
+    function test_leading_space(t) {
+        t.plan(2);
+        
+        var parser = new OpenLayers.Format.GeoRSS();
+        var items = parser.read('<rss version="2.0" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss"><item><description>  <![CDATA[foo]]></description></item></rss>');
+        t.eq(items.length, 1, "item created");
+        t.eq(items[0].attributes.description, "  foo", "description value is ok");
+    }
              
     var shell_start = '<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" \n              xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss">\n              <title>scribble</title>\n              <id>http://featureserver.org/featureserver.cgi/scribble?format=atom</id>\n              <author><name>FeatureServer</name></author>\n';             
     var shell_end = '</feed>';