DEMAND on foodbanks across the conurbation seems to be levelling out, in line with demand seen elsewhere across the country.

In a document released by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hunger demand seems to be slowing, bringing with it a rapid halt on food bank expansion.

And despite being very busy in the run up to Christmas, Dorset food bank bosses have claimed they have yet to find out if they have seen as many clients as they had this time last year.

Wimborne foodbank coordinator Robert Jones said he'd seen evidence of "more children, more debt and more new clients" but couldn't say definitively they had been busier than this time last year.

"Last year we fed 652 people, including 243 children and re redeemed 290 vouchers," he said. "In 2015 our running total is 241 vouchers. We're more or less the same as last year. We have fed 537 people up to this point in December.

"Since the middle of the year my impression is we're seeing more families with children than we did last year. Our proportion of children has been rising.

"I have begun to see more new clients recently and debt is a big reason for people coming in."

Over The Trussell Trust reportedly opened more than 400 branches since 2009, with one unnamed organisation recording a 20-fold rise in the number of parcels it have out each year.

But the trust has now reported the number of packages it gave out this summer went up by less than three per cent over the same period of 2014.

Bournemouth manager Debbie Bramley said she hasn't seen any sign of slowing demand for their recently-opened bank.

"We're really really busy at the moment," she said. "We're doing about 200 hampers on top of our normal parcels. We're giving out quite a lot. I'm not sure if there are more than last year but it does feel really busy.

"It's not looking great for people this year and it's a different type of people. People aren't managing.

"It's not just people on benefits. It's hitting a lot of people. The cost of living and caps to everything, like child benefits and tax credits.

She added: "We always get extra volunteers at this time of year. We've had a huge amount of support from head office too. It's been massive for us. We would never have been able to do without their support. It makes a huge difference to families. We're just doing the best we can. We had had a lot of space taken away so we can't store as much as we could and we're still looking for bigger space. It just means we can only do food and basic toiletries."