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Volunteers who run a donation hub for Ukrainians in Epping say hundreds of families will lose access to clean clothes and food, because the council is asking them to leave.

The Essex Supports Ukrainian Families group was set up following the Russian invasion. Since March, they've taken donations at the offices of Epping Forest District Council.

But the council says they must leave by the end of July, because the volunteers are now offering services that should be provided by specialists.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Essex speaks to Melanie Whitten, the group's organiser, as well as Doug and Tina Harrison who have a Ukrainian family-of-three living with them and have relied on the hub.

Epping Forest District Council says in a statement:

"The Ukraine donation hub started as a place for people to donate items to support the people of Ukraine. It has recently changed into something quite different and the ESUF (Essex Supports Ukrainian Families group )is now offering advice and support to Ukrainian families hosted in the UK.

"We were pleased to support the ESUF in providing a donation point, but as the ESUF has changed its activities we are now required to ensure that caring for these vulnerable families is only carried out by those with specialised training. We respect the energy and commitment freely given by the ESUF, but it is an organisation run by volunteers without any of the safeguards that we would expect for dealing with such vulnerable groups. When we became aware, we had to ask the ESUF to immediately stop offering these services unsupervised within our offices.

"Many other organisations are doing similar work – but they are government organisations or registered charities with processes and procedures in place for everything from DBS criminal record checks, to financial audits to mental health training.

"Epping Forest Distric Council has tried to engage with members of the donation hub by offering them support and direction but they have declined to work with us. We understand their marvellous intentions, but whilst they are hosted under the Council’s roof, we have a duty of care to the Ukrainian families. We cannot ignore the safeguarding gaps in the way in which the hub operates, and our primary concerns must be for the welfare of the Ukrainian families.

"We had hoped we could compromise and support the hub to find its way forward into a better place. We are very sorry that this has not been possible. It now seems the relationship has broken down irretrievably and we must ask the hub to leave.

"We continue to work behind the scenes to support the many Ukrainian families and hope that once settled in a new home, the donation hub will find renewed success."

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