AN Oxford food bank is looking for a new base, amid fears that the city council could repossess the garage where it has stored food.

Mark Roberts, 73, has been using a council-owned garage on Hawksmoor Road to help operate Cutteslowe Food Bank, but is now looking for a new place.

Mr Roberts, who says he has served around 2,000 people since starting the service in 2017, said he would ideally like a venue in Cutteslowe or Summertown, but fears rent prices could limit his options.

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The city council has threatened to repossess the garage for infringing license regulations but Mr Roberts believes it should be more sympathetic given what he has been using it for.

He said he had been allowed to stay in the garage - though not run the food bank from it - following a recent inspection, but fears he could be turfed out in future.

He explained: “We probably need a facility the size of about two or three garages – we just need storage because we have got all the shelving.”

Mr Roberts has his eye on a council-owned location in Kendall Crescent, but it was out of his price range. Instead he hopes a generous local might offer him cheap rent.

His appeal comes after we revealed yesterday that more than 400 homes across Oxford are currently lying empty.

READ MORE: Hundreds of empty homes across Oxford despite housing crisis

 

Mr Roberts rents another space in Reading, but needs something closer to home to help the 20 to 50 local people, including children, who he supports along with three volunteers most weeks.

Oxford City Council’s landlord services manager Bill Graves said: “We informed Mr Roberts in writing at the end of September that he was operating outside the conditions of use of his garage as required under the licence, including the condition not to store food or drink in it.

“Local residents complained to the council that Mr Roberts filled communal bins with discarded food and related waste from the garage."

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He continued: “The council gave him five weeks to clear the garage but he was unable to do so, and we allowed him more time to come to an alternative arrangement before we could pursue enforcement action."

Following an inspection in the past few days, the council told the Oxford Mail yesterday that it was now satisfied that Mr Roberts was not storing food at the garage.

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However Mr Roberts said there were ‘a lot of people’ who would start up food banks if the council offered more help.

The majority of his supplies come from the Oxford Food Bank, various Sainsburys and the charity Fareshare.

Donation boxes can be found in Sainsbury’s stores in Summertown, St Clements, St Aldgates and North Gate.

On March 3, a car boot sale at Kidlington Football Club will fundraise for the facility and its associated charity, the Grieving Parents Support Group.