Hundreds of Yorkshire venues to be turned into warm spaces

The Warm Welcome Space at St Stephen's Church in West Bowling

Hundreds of locations in Yorkshire have signed up to provide a warm space for people to turn to this winter.

The Warm Welcome scheme aims to combat social isolation while also offering a safe environment for people struggling with high energy bills.

In Bradford alone 201 venues, ranging from churches to sports centres and libraries, have signed up.

Organisers are now preparing for a "challenging winter" and said they were expecting to see a rise in demand.

In 2022 around 7,000 warm spaces were registered across the UK with almost 2.5 million visits during the cold months.

Sarah Hinton has been running the warm space at St Stephen's Church in Bradford's West Bowling area since last year and said she was expecting to see an increase in demand.

"I think there will be more demand, it's just starting," she told BBC Look North.

"People don't have extra money that they have saved up and once they start getting their heating bills in it is going to really kick in and be very tough for some people."

Ms Hinton, who is the manager of charity Shine in West Bowling, said organisations such as hers were just as affected by the cost of living crisis as the people who use the charity.

"We are needing more money just to keep our doors open," she said.

Shine West Bowling charity manager Sarah Hinton

Shine's community engagement coordinator Stephen Woodrow said the warm spaces scheme also helped "open doors".

"People come through because they want to get warm, get a cup of tea or a slice of toast, but then we just sit and talk to them and make them feel warm, not just on the outside but on the inside," he said.

"It's not only a warm space to sit in, it's about an environment where they are going to feel welcome."