Cost of Living: Residents using Wolverhampton's warm spaces as lifeline

Linda Knight said she chose warmth over a food parcel on Tuesday and visited a warm space in Wolverhampton

Rising heating bills led one woman to choose visiting a warm space over staying in to wait for a food parcel.

"It was that cold this morning, I'd got two choices - wait for the parcel or come and get warm and the warmth won this morning, " she told BBC News.

Linda Knight said she has been using facilities at Fifth Avenue in Wolverhampton, in the West Midlands, since it opened three weeks ago.

The council has spent £50, 000 funding 38 spaces in the city until March.

Hope Community Project in Heath Town can help more than 100 people a day

Ms Knight said the spaces were vital in allowing her to save money.

"They open these places up which helps me because I don't have to put my heating on in the day when my granddaughter is at school, I can save for when she's at home because I know I can come up to one of these places and get warm."

Danielle Trevatt and her husband both work but say rising prices mean they have to rely on the centre as well.

"Being able to afford to put the heating on it's just costing so much to do that all day every day," she said.

Volunteers at Fifth House help make meals for people

Diane Lewis and her team at Fifth Avenue open the space on Tuesdays and Thursdays and provide free lunches.

"[People] can come in and access as many teas, coffees, hot chocolates as they want. we feed them so they have some nice warm soup and crusty bread," she said.

"None of us should be having to go out there and give out food parcels and topping up people's gas and electric - we shouldn't have to be doing that."

Hope Community Project in Heath Town has also received funding and said it can help more than 100 people a day.

Manager Lisa Storey said word was getting round about the warm space now it was available.

"There's a very warm welcome," she said.

"We're seeing more and more people come through our doors who are in real crisis, in fact we are struggling to meet the demand."

Announcing the plans in October, council leader Ian Brookfield said he was "embarrassed" at the need to open dozens of warm banks over winter.

But, he said the authority "could not leave anybody behind."

Government cold weather payments have been paid out for the first time this winter and people claiming certain benefits are eligible to claim £25 for each full week of sub-zero temperatures.

More than 11 million pensioners will receive regular winter fuel payments boosted by an extra £300 this year as Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said the government wanted to do "everything we can to support pensioners who are often the most exposed to higher costs".