Parish council donates £10,000 to organisations helping people deal with the cost of living crisis in Northampton

A parish council in Northampton has donated £10,000 to organisations helping people deal with the cost of living crisis.

Kingsthorpe Parish Council made the decision at a full council meeting to donate £10,000 from reserves to two organisations in its parish that are leading the way in combating the financial issues.

A committee was set up, involving a number of councillors to coordinate the cost of living help, and the Church of England Kingsthorpe and the St Vincent de Paul Society were selected as recipients.

Parish councillor Mike O’Connor said: “We thought it was important with the cost of living crisis that we as a parish council do as much as we can for the residents in need within the Kingsthorpe parish.

“We decided at a full council meeting to put £10,000 from reserves to one side to fund anything we could do that might help.

“We do not have the mechanism to get funds to people directly so we looked at how we could do it and the best way to do it was to donate funds to organisations.

“We started with the local churches as they seem to be the people who do the most work and have contact with people in need. We gave them some money to help fund the food bank [based at St David’s Church] so those funds are going directly into people’s mouths. It is also helping with keeping those churches open a bit longer as warm places so people have somewhere to go.”

Other funds were donated to the St Vincent de Paul Society, which delivers food parcels every Christmas.

Cllr O’Connor added: “There are two organisations but three different ways we could get funds distributed.

“It’s important for the parish council to be in touch with the needs of the people who live in the parish. You should really be there, helping fund something to help.”

The parish council was also able to purchase 100 blankets, which Councillor Arthur Newbury, who is also on the cost of living committee, helped to deliver.

Cllr O’Connor added that the parish council has grants available all year round that organisations can apply for, if what they are doing benefits the residents of the parish.