Few takers for town's warm spaces despite cost of living crisis
Two warm spaces in a Shropshire town, set up to provide people with somewhere to go amid the rising cost of energy, have had very few takers, organisers have said.
Open coffee and company sessions have been started in Bridgnorth at both the Baptist Church in West Castle Street and St James' Hall Church in Lodge Lane.
The venues have been offering a warm place to go in the wake of the cost of living crisis, as well as free refreshments and a place to meet other members of the community.
Just before Christmas, a warm space was opened at the Bridgnorth Baptist Church every Thursday, but organisers have seen very little interest.
A similar initiative was set up at St James' Hall last month but nobody visited the warm space when it opened on its first day, although there has been a handful of users since.
Elizabeth Fisher from St James' said: "We started two weeks ago but didn't get any visitors. We then had three people the second time we ran it and just two this week.
"I think the reason people are not coming is that they do not know we are here.
"We were hoping if it proves successful we could keep it going not just through the cold weather but also if people want to continue into spring and summer we could keep it going as a place for the community to meet.
"Bridgnorth Town Council even have some money they can provide to help us but only when it is up and running properly but at the moment we haven't had enough people use it."
She said currently the warm space is available on Fridays between 10am and noon but they would consider running it on other days if more people used it.
Anybody interested in attending or volunteering should contact: elizabethfisher29@icloud.com
