Cost of living: Warm hub in Newbiggin-by-the-Sea already seeing demand skyrocket

Newbiggin Maritime Centre has become one of the county’s warm spaces, and operates the scheme every Thursday between noon and 4pm.

The warm hub has only been in operation for two weeks, during which attendee numbers jumped from 25 in week one to 78 in week two.

Administrator at the centre Shannon Ford said: “It is quite heartbreaking that we are getting to the situation where people need this kind of help.

“It is great to be able to help them when they need it so much.

“Even by coming in for an hour, it is an hour less that they have to sit with their lights on.”

The 28-year-old added that many attendees are pensioners, with one visitor last week aged 98.

To attend the warm hub, all you have to do is ask for a warm hub tea or coffee at the cafe during the programme’s operating hours.

After a Facebook appeal from the Maritime Centre, gardeners and allotment holders have been dropping off unneeded vegetables to make soup for warm hub users too.

This is the first year that the warm hub has been in operation, and it launches amidst soaring energy bills and a cost of living crisis.

It is part of a Northumberland County Council initiative to set up over 100 warm spaces across the region for people who cannot afford to have their heating on all the time.