Food bank looks for new home after council eviction

A community food bank with 3,000 registered users has been left "homeless" after the service was asked to vacate a council-owned building.

Thorney, Eye and Surrounding Area Food Hub in Peterborough operated out of the Thorney Community Centre alongside the under-threat library.

But Peterborough City Council said the building "needed to close on health and safety grounds due to the poor condition".

Erin Tierney who runs the food bank, said she felt "let down by the council" who gave them "just two weeks' notice to leave the building".

The city council said it was working on relocation plans and that a meeting would be held with Thorney Parish Council on 29 January.

Single mother-of-two Ms Tierney set up the Thorney, Eye and Surrounding Food Hub in 2019.

The service relies on donations, and Ms Tierney says it has been supporting "working families" locally - recently seeing a rise in demand from people of retirement age.

She said the food bank would have to temporarily close until a new home was found.

"We have to be out [end] of January at the latest. It is apparently due to health and safety reasons," she said.

"This leaves us really stuck. There is nothing in the village that is available where we can move straight into.

"Both financially and mentally it is very stressful.

"To give us two weeks of notice is pretty unfair. We were assured we would have somewhere found for us to move into before this. So we are feeling very let down as well as people who use it.

"I am not angry, I am disappointed. Two weeks to move an entire building full of food, freezers and other bits is going to be bit of a logistical nightmare."

Last year, the building was among 79 placed on the city council's list at risk of being sold to balance its budget deficit.

Councillor Mohammed Jamil, deputy leader and cabinet member for finance and corporate governance, said: "The council informed the parish council on 13 January that the building needed to close on health and safety grounds due to the poor condition of the building and toilet area, which are unusable for the current use (distribution of food).

"We are working on plans to relocate the food bank and a meeting is being held with the parish council on 29 January to discuss this further."

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