AS temperatures hit a bitter minus 11C this week, Mel Rumble was out clearing the icy pavement to the Our Place community centre.
By midday in Boothtown, near Halifax, West Yorkshire, seven radiators were blasting, the tea urns were going strong, and they were serving a two-course meal of soup and apple pie to a steady stream of people coming through the pink doors. “This is actually quiet for us,” Mel, 42, says. “We usually have 80 in, but the snow and ice has stopped some people coming out.”
Volunteers had been out collecting guests while dodging black ice, flood warnings and roads closed by abandoned cars. This is what a “Warm Welcome” really means on the coldest day of the year, and comes two years after the scheme was launched by Gordon Brown as part of the 2022 Daily Mirror Christmas Appeal.
Not just the physical warmth of a church hall, hairdresser’s or library – but the warmth of human kindness.
Now there are almost 5,000 spaces, and the campaign has registered and linked up local spaces to become what the former Prime Minister calls a “Chain of Hope”. More than 900 new spaces joined this winter – including more than 40 who have registered since the cold snap.
In sub-zero conditions, Our Space is a lifeline for communities on low incomes. “It’s nice and warm in here today,” says Shelley Ledgard, 44, from Halifax, a disabled mum in a red Oodie – a hoodie crossed with a blanket. Shelley is a carer for both her daughter and her husband.
“This place is an absolute godsend. Like a lot of people, I don’t tend to put the heating on at home. Everyone worries about their bills, don’t they? I feel safe and relaxed when I’m here.”
As parts of Britain are placed under a cold health alert, the oldest guest, Olivia Turner, 94, from Brighouse, West Yorkshire, chooses a bingo prize. “I love coming here,” she smiles. “I talk to anyone and everyone.”
The youngest guest, 11-week-old Finley, has been brought by his mum Jodie Robinson, 28, who is here with her sister Olivia, 26, and her 14-month-old daughter Tia. Both babies are wrapped in thick blankets.
“This week has been so cold,” Jodie says. “It doesn’t even feel warm when you do have the heating on at home, then you worry about the cost.”
Olivia nods. “It was so cold last night – I had my Oodie on under the duvet, but it’s really cosy here and there’s always someone to have a chinwag with. I don’t know what I’d do without it. I’d be cold. I know I’m OK when I’m here, I come all the time. They all make a fuss of Tia.”
There’s even a “wellbeing wall” where visitors can help themselves to tinned and long-life food, fleece blankets, hand warmers, thermal hats and shoe grips to make walking in snow easier.
“Last year we gave away 80 electric blankets,” Mel says. “But people were too scared to run up a
bill. This week could be dangerous, especially for people who are immobile, so we looked at ways to keep them warm when they’re at home too.”
Warm Welcome spaces can be any shape or size. Travelling 100 miles south of Halifax, in the St Ann’s area of Nottingham, as the mercury plummeted, Luke Goss was opening up his mate’s converted garage, known locally as “Hope Hut”.
For the garage’s “Warm Hut” events, they provide a space for soup, homework and hot drinks.
“It started 10 years ago when we saw schoolchildren playing ‘chicken bus’ – lying on the road in front of moving buses,” says Luke.
“We encouraged them to play football with us on the school fields instead, and it became a regular thing. Now with the Warm Hut, we have young children all the way to our eldest member who is 99.
“Our garage is next to a primary school so families can come straight after school and keep their heating off.”
Kate Burns, 73, comes with her granddaughter. “The Warm Hut is needed with everything double the price,” she says. My granddaughter says she likes coming “to colour,
play games, talk to people and
make friends”.
Supermarket assistant Andy Wong and his wife Hui are with their two children, Ronald, six and Aelia, two. “It is a nice place to make friends for both us and the children,” Andy, 39, says. “As a parent it releases stress. We can have a hot drink and relax while they play.”
Care assistant Patricia Phillipson, 21, is a volunteer who has been a regular since she was 14.
“The cost of living and poverty can affect your mental health,” she says. “Many services in the community have closed. Knife crime has been a huge issue, and we’ve tried to get young people off the streets.
“My dad is a single dad to my sister and I. While I help to put food on the table, and my nonna helps too, we’re not saving as much as we used to.”
From January 20, “Blue Monday”, the network will host its first Warm Welcome Week to combat isolation, empty pockets and low temperatures.
“The dark winter days and nights of January can be extremely tough,”
says David Barclay, Warm Welcome campaign director. “This week will create a surge of warmth in the coldest week of the coldest month.”
Back in Halifax, Jeanette Martin, 71, and husband Len, also 71, are enjoying the chicken soup and tiger bread. “This weather has been so bad, we’ve
been stuck in since Saturday. We couldn’t wait to get here and enjoy the warmth,” Jeanette says.
Mel says she’s been volunteering at Our Space since she was 14, as her mum used to run the centre. When her mum passed away a decade ago, she took over the reins.
“Everyone needs help at the moment,” she says. “I know there will be people at home in the cold today, or putting a bar on the fire for half an hour – they need that heat, but they never warm up..
“We don’t want anyone to feel cold or alone.”
Find a Warm Welcome – www.warmwelcome.uk/find-a-space#map