At an extra ordinary meeting of Midsomer Norton Town Council, the meeting heard about on going plans to create a warm space where residents can go when the cost of living crisis drives them to find somewhere heated. The site which will be hosting those Warm Spaces is here, Unit 14 with the first events expected this month.

However when councillors met to discuss how much to give to the Town Trust to run the events, for families especially in fuel poverty, there were fears that it will simply not be big enough to meet the need.

Cllr Steve Plumley asked the representative of the Trust how many people could even fit in the community space Unit 14? And would it be enough.

Alex Davis told the meeting the space could fit around 40 people, maybe more when using the upstairs space too. " Is that big enough? Do you know how many people will need help? " asked Cllr Plumley. " We need to do what we can to help."

There is no clear idea of how many people will need help this coming winter admitted the Trust, but that if demand increased the scheme could be extended into Orchard Hall, or perhaps the church. " But the good news is that we already have a lot of volunteers coming forward to help out (now the weather is getting colder) " said Alex Davis, " So we hope to put on a lot of events so that people can come in, and get warm, maybe make a pizza or do an activity with the children, and if the dates are like that there hopefully will be less stigma to coming to get help."

The council had agreed to give £1,000 to the Town Trust to help fund the Warm Space events, (with other money already coming from things like the Heritage Fund. " But on the suggestion of Cllr Martyn Plant, councillors agreed to increase this to £1,300, to increase the possibility of offering help to residents.