Bedford night shelter extends opening after cold snap

The King's Arms Project opened its shelter in December to provide warm beds for rough sleepers

A charity running a winter night shelter will keep its doors open for an extra month following high demand during the cold snap.

The King's Arms Project, on Harpur Street, Bedford, offers a hot meal and bed for up 20 people per night.

The Met Office predicts temperatures in Bedford could drop to -5C this week.

The initiative was due to run until late February but will instead close at the end of March. Rough sleepers told the BBC how important the shelter was.

Charity chief executive Kirstie Cook said the shelter had "been at capacity the majority of the time".

Chief executive Kirstie Cook said it was a "privilege" to help people through The King's Arms Project

The shelter, which opened in December, is run by about 100 volunteers.

It has one member of staff sleeping on site overnight and a security guard.

Ms Cook told the BBC: "What we're asking from the team here is to be kind and friendly, to serve warm food, to chat and provide that safe bed space.

"Often by 19:30 GMT, when they're here, they've already been in the cold and dark for several hours, so they're keen to come in and get warm food and get under warm blankets."

Rachel, 20, spent her first night at the shelter after becoming a rough sleeper recently

Rachel, 20, spent her first night at the shelter on Tuesday, which was the coldest January night since 2019, the Met Office said.

She added: "As long as it's warm it's better than walking around on the streets. We can't sleep when it's this cold out there, you can barely stand or walk, everything turns to ice.

"I'm happy that there's a place like this because I didn't know any of this sort of stuff."

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Rachel praised the volunteers for giving up their free time "just to help".

"It baffles me that some people are that nice to just do that... it puts a little bit of faith back in humanity."

Christopher, 38, said he had been homeless for more than a week, and would otherwise most likely be sleeping in a tent.

Christopher was one of the rough sleepers using the night shelter on Tuesday

Volunteer Beth Lloyd-Jones said helping people at the charity had been emotional

Volunteer Beth Lloyd-Jones, a social worker, said she enjoyed meeting people and hearing their stories.

She said: "It is a bit of reality check, especially when it's cold and freezing, you just feel lucky to go home to a warm bed... not everybody gets to do that."

Ms Cook shared a similar sentiment: "Knowing people are tucked up in bed, having had something to eat - it's a real joy do that."