A NEW initiative to help keep people warm during the cold winter months is being set up in Salisbury.

Rather than residents sitting alone at home in an unheated house, they can go to one of the ‘warm and welcoming spaces’ being set up.

The initiative has been set up by Salisbury City Council’s communities team and community partners Safer and Supportive Salisbury, Silver Salisbury, and Harnham Community Network.

Cllr Victoria Charleston said: “Salisbury City Council is delighted to coordinate this scheme with our city partners as we approach the colder months of the year, and our Communities Team are always ready to give local people a warm welcome.”

Chair of Safer and Supportive Salisbury, Anne Trevett said: "I just love this initiative by the City Council. It's really important as a way of helping with the heating crisis but it is also about drawing people together over a cup of coffee, not being alone worrying.

She added: “It is also across the city - each of us finding a place to meet in our own little community. Building on our strengths."

Wiltshire Council community engagement manager, Karlene Jammeh and resident engagement manager for Wiltshire council Kate Darbyshire will be working with individuals and organisations who will benefit from this.

Leader of Wiltshire Council, Cllr Richard Clewer said: “As we enter the colder months, the council is acutely aware the concerns about the increase in the cost of living, particularly energy bills.

“My Cabinet are prioritising the Council’s response to this, placing it on a footing similar to that seen during the pandemic as we will do all that we can to ease the pressures that people are feeling.

“We have already established workstreams to focus on the rapid identification and implementation of support measures which, among others, includes working with partners to launch warm spaces, as well as a continued focus on the issuing of advice and grants that make properties more energy efficient.

He added: “I am incredibly proud of how quickly our communities support and look out for one another, and the council will be working tirelessly to ensure our residents feel warm, safe and looked after this winter.”

Currently, residents can go to the community café at the Baptist Church on Brown Street in Salisbury which is open from 10am to 12 noon on Tuesdays and the Cross Barr Café at the Barrington Centre in Bishopdown which is open from 11am on Thursdays.

Those with a venue or organisation available to run a free or low-cost space can join the Warm and Welcoming Spaces list for Salisbury which will be collated by the city council’s Communities Team and will be published and shared by all the partners.

The list is available from the City Council website here.

 

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