THE FIRST ‘warm bank’ has been set up in BCP to help people stay safe and warm during the cost of living crisis.

A warm bank is a safe place for people to go and stay warm free-of-charge.

Rossmore Leisure Centre in Parkstone, Poole, will become a ‘warm places’ venue during the winter.

The centre is currently looking for donations of books, board games and puzzles for visitors to use.

Fitness manager at Rossmore Leisure Centre, Dilan Tunc said: “With electricity bills and everything going up at the moment, it's just a place for people who either live on their own, elderly to come in and have a communal feel, to stay warm and we’ll have books, puzzles, games and magazines for people to use as well. We also have a cafe for people to have hot drinks and food during the day.”

Councillor Sean Gabriel is involved with the management of Rossmore Leisure Centre.

He said: “Particularly in the winter it is going to be challenging for some people so it’s somewhere that they can come and feel safe and feel warm because a lot of our customers say they feel safe at Rossmore.

“We wanted to make sure that if they wanted to come and spend a day with us, obviously we've got the coffee shop open but we’ve had lots of donations so we're going to set up a small library, scrabble and chess sets.

“People can spend the day they can charge their phones, we've got free internet access as well, during the day.

“We’re not as busy as we are late afternoon/early evenings so I thought that might be quite nice for some people, especially if some people are feeling quite lonely they can come here and meet new friends.

“It's a free of charge offer to just come in and spend time with us, safe and warm.

“We’ve had quite a lot of interest in it already, I think BCP are going to be doing similar projects. I thought it was one of those things we could do quite easily to support people through difficult times.”

This warm place is the first known one of its kind in BCP.

Councillor Gabriel said: “I think Bristol is doing a similar project in some of their communities. I just happened to hear of it and thought okay well give it a go, it will probably be the first week of October we’ll make it live.”

Mayor of Poole and ward councillor Tony Trent said: “I think it’s an excellent idea, last week at a housing conference we discussed how and where these can be set up so it's nice to see one actually being set up because i think there will be some people in dire need of somewhere warm to go and something like a leisure centre will be an ideal place.”

Open hours for the warm place will be the same as the leisure centre.

To view leisure centre opening hours visit: https://www.everyoneactive.com/centre/everyone-active-leisure-centre-rossmore/