Cost of living: Welsh winter warm hubs stay open in summer

Dozens of centres which opened around Wales in winter to give people a warm place to go to tackle the cost of living have stayed open during summer.

Warm hubs in most local authorities are still running as community spaces, BBC Wales research has found.

The leader of Swansea council said they have "taken on a life of their own".

The Welsh government, which gave £1m to help local authorities back the hubs, said no decision has been taken on support for next winter.

"For us, it was always about the community," Angela Owen said as she showed me around the new café at Pontlliw Park in Swansea.

With a team of volunteers she has transformed a quiet corner of the city into a vibrant space to meet and socialise.

It is one of dozens of centres across Wales which received funding to become warm hubs in the winter, but which are still open as much warmer days arrived.

"We're all very proud to belong to the community of Pontlliw. So I think it's a very worthwhile service, and it will grow," Angela said.

In December 2022 the Welsh government provided funding to local authorities to open warm hubs, which were designed to offer a warm place to go for people who may struggle to heat their homes.

They generally offered people a warm, safe place to visit without obligation to spend money while they are there.

BBC Wales has established that designated warm hubs in the majority of local councils have remained open for the community.

"Since lockdown everything that we had in Pontlliw, which wasn't a great deal, just went," Angela said.

With her fellow volunteers at the Friends of Pontlliw Park she had spent the past few years planting and tidying a corner of the park. Last year they decided to develop a nearby building that was partly used as a football changing room.

The group applied for grants to fund the renovation and received money to develop a warm hub at the site.

Since opening, the volunteers have welcomed local people with cups of tea and plates of biscuits.

"The community hub was always going to be our goal," Angela said. "There's a hardcore of about 20 to 25 volunteers that will come at any one time. And they garden, and then they work the hub."

One of the volunteers is Lyn English, whose passion for Pontlliw overflows.

"I love this village," she beamed. "I am passionate about the village that I live in. I came here 44 years ago from south Yorkshire and I love it, I absolutely love it."

Lyn estimated that she makes 50 cups of tea a day when the hub is open to visitors. She butters toast and plates up cakes and biscuits.

Local residents walk down to get a cuppa, while a team of drivers collect older people who cannot usually get out of the house.

Before the Friends of Pontlliw Park began work, the area was "in a bad way", Lyn said.

"We want to see it thriving. We've got things booked for the elderly people, we have young mothers coming here with children. It's really lovely."

Swansea had 94 designated warm hubs during the winter, and the council said 60 of them were still opening.

Among the other local authorities, Flintshire said 47 warm hubs were still open to the community, Caerphilly was still offering 35 hubs, and there are 30 in Blaenau Gwent.

Numbers varied at other councils, while some have reverted their designated warm hubs to their original functions, such as libraries and existing community hubs.

Swansea council leader Rob Stewart welcomed the transition of warm hubs into community spaces.

"It was a new initiative, it hadn't been tried before, and it has been great," he said.

"We saw not just people responding to, and meeting, the immediate need of keeping people warm during the winter months, but now that we have got into the wonderful summer sun those hubs have turned into community spaces where people are meeting regularly.

"They have really taken on a life of their own," he said.

Another of Swansea's designated warm hubs was the Bont Elim Community Church in Pontarddulais.

While it has a religious ethos, pastor Jason Beynon said the centre's café offered a safe space and a place to go for local people.

"When heat no longer became an issue, the warm welcome continued to be an essential need in our locality," Mr Beynon said.

The church offers teas, coffees and cake to passers-by. It attracts parents who are dropping off children at the nearby school, as well as elderly residents.

"It's a very lonely existence to someone living on their own, and so the ability to come in to warm welcome - that's the declaration, no matter how much sunshine we've got outside.

"No matter what you're going through, no matter how busy you think we are, you will always be loved here, there will always be that warm welcome, and a cuppa and a chat."

A Welsh government spokesperson said: "We provided £1m this winter to help local authorities support more than 700 warm hubs across Wales as part of a £1.6bn package of targeted help for households dealing with the cost of living crisis.

"No decisions have been taken about future support for next winter."