RELIEVED volunteers at Bridgwater’s foodbank who feared they would be homeless this week have been told they can stay put.

Andy Sharman, chairman of the foodbank’s steering group, told the team that they were going to be staying in the Mount Street Day Centre in Bridgwater for the “foreseeable future”.

The charity was originally only given use of the premises provisionally until March 31, 2014, after they were relocated from their old home in Bridgwater’s Enterprise Centre.

But Somerset County Council has now agreed to allow the continuing use of the building for the purpose as a foodbank.

Mark Hollidge, the centre manager, said: “This is great news for the team.

“It means that we can start to put into operation ideas to help us to improve the good service we already offer.

“It will be one year on the April 24 since we began this venture in Bridgwater and I cannot think of a better birthday present for us than this news.”

The Bridgwater Foodbank has helped 1,747 people over the last year, including almost 600 children under the age of 16.

Almost 14,000 metric tonnes of food were distributed to the people of Bridgwater by the foodbank in that time.

Ted Stock, a spokesman for the charity, said: “Because of the uncertainty of the future we have allowed our stocks to reduce.

“We normally carry between 6 and 7 metric tonnes at any time but we have deliberately allowed it to reduce to below four metric tonnes in case we needed to move it around.

“We can now start to rebuild to the levels we had before. That’s my job and I cannot wait to get at it”.

The foodbank will be opening this year on Good Friday and Easter Monday from 10am until noon to continue helping local people in crisis.