'It's only going to get worse for people' warns food bank manager as rising energy prices loom large.

Announced on Thursday (February 3) the increase in energy prices will see bills rise by around £693 for millions of households from April.

As a result, there is set to be an increased demand at foodbanks across the country as families are forced to choose between heating and eating.

The hike in energy prices worries Flintshire foodbank project manager, Sue Leake, who said: "The increased prices are going to get very difficult for a lot of people whether they are working or on benefits and the increase in general living - food prices have gone up astronomically, that’s going to affect everyone.

"For the people on the lowest incomes, they get hit hardest don’t they. It’s only going to get worse for people, it’s very hard for people to make ends meet and we know that people are struggling to do so."

The foodbank has seen the numbers of users rise by 200 during the past few months, peaking at 1,378 people using the facility in December.

Sue added:"Although Flintshire isn’t a necessarily wealthy county, it’s a very generous county and we do get a lot of people donating to us regularly so that we are able to help people, without those generous donors, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do.

"Unfortunately as prices continue to hike, foodbanks are going to become essential."

Those thoughts were echoed by Kirsty Wild, who is Chair of the Llangollen Food Share organisation.

She said: "The energy crisis is part of an already worrying living crisis, with the current cost of everything. It's outrageous that this burden is being passed onto people.

"We already know the affects it has on people as we see it with people coming to us and we're expecting that people who don't currently use our service, will be soon.

"It's 2022, we're one of the richest countries in the world and this is happening. Our dream is to be redundant, we shouldn't be needed but unfortunately we are."