My thanks go to residents from right across our area who have offered their homes through the Homes for Ukraine scheme, and to everyone else who has helped. I know our communities will provide a warm welcome to the Ukrainian families who are arriving in our area.

The Council have been working very hard with our partners in recent weeks to ensure things like access to school places and health services. More details on this and information on other ways we can all help alleviate the suffering in Ukraine can be found on our dedicated ‘Support Ukraine’ web pages.

Another thing we have been working hard with partners on – in this case the police – is the newly renovated police station at Lewis House in Bath. Having such a base has long been called for and I am pleased that working with the police, we have together delivered a police station for residents. I am sure this will be welcomed across the area.

The squeeze on household budgets is hitting everyone and for some, this means a stark choice of having to choose between food or fuel. We want people to know about the support and advice that is out there, including the Welfare Support scheme for people who are on a low income and in financial hardship, Housing Benefit to help paying rent and Council Tax Support, which could reduce the amount you have to pay on your bill.

We are fortunate to have brilliant local organisations such as the Radstock Food Club. The websites: livewell.bathnes.gov.uk and: banes foodfinder.org.uk/ have more information.

The Council is also working hard to develop a system to distribute funds such as the Council tax rebate scheme announced by the Government.

In my last column, I said I would say more about what the Council is doing to help revitalise our town and village centres.

We have been successful recently in securing WECA funds to help us do this, including for Midsomer Norton and Radstock town centres, as well as more investment in transport.

Finally, we have launched a series of videos featuring foster carers who are sharing their stories.

My thanks to our amazing foster carers who took time to help us make the videos which I’d encourage you to watch on our Youtube channel.

If you are interested in finding out more, you can get in touch through the B&NES fostering website: fostering.bathnes.gov.uk/