Bradford on Avon is now home to its own food bank which is to be based at the new community hub after an official handover on Tuesday.

Bath Food Bank handed over responsibility to the group in charge of the Hub@BA15 centre which will be in the old HSBC bank on Church Street.

Until now the town has had only a very limited food bank service, with donations were collected by local churches.

Cllr Laurie Brown, chairman of the hub trust, said: “We will get to provide a wider service to the needs of our community and we required a central location which was accessible to all. The premises in Church Street has given us this opportunity.”

“We are very grateful for the support of Sainsbury’s and all the shoppers who continually supply the food bank and we are hoping many volunteers will assist us with the work at the hub.”

Sainsbury’s at Elm Cross Shopping Centre have collected over 1,500kg of food in the last year.

Chris Jensen, supplies co-ordinator for Bath Food Bank said: “We are more than pleased to be handing over control. I think it is excellent that Bradford on Avon is expanding their operation to fill a need The Sainsbury’s here is hardly the biggest one in the country but people in Bradford on Avon donate a lot to the food bank.”

The community hub trust is planning to open the hub fully in January.