A ‘STEEPLY rising’ number of desperate people turning up at church doors in need of food or cash to pay fuel bills has been branded a ‘scandal’.

Members of East Lancashire’s clergy spoke out after a vicar was so moved she wrote a heartfelt and graphic account of the large amount of poor and vulnerable people seeking emergency help from her.

Rev Anne Morris of St Oswald’s Church, which covers Knuzden and Shadsworth, said: “This should not be happening in modern Britain.”

Her concerns are shared by the Bishop of Burnley Philip North, who branded it a ‘scandal’, and other vicars who had seen similar problems in the area’s parishes.

The clergy’s alarm comes four years after official government statistics placed Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley and Pendle in the 20 most deprived boroughs in England.

Earlier this year it was also revealed Blackburn with Darwen had the second highest number of claimants for child and working tax credits in the country.

The number of people using East Lancashire’s foodbanks and those collecting emergency parcels from Blackburn Cathedral has also increased dramatically since 2013.

Labour politicians blame welfare cuts and austerity for the surge in people needing help while Conservative MPs said the economic recovery would help them out of the poverty trap.

Rev Morris’s letter, which was read out to this month’s Blackburn with Darwen Council Forum, said: “In the past I’ve had two or three callers a year, mostly regulars with alcohol problems who called for a cup of tea, a sandwich and a chat.

“In the last two years everything has changed. I now have at least one caller per week, sometimes more.

“They now need a food parcel, and often money on a gas or electricity card.

“The demand was getting hard to deal with on an ad-hoc basis so now it has to be organised. The Diocese has bought me a freezer so I can have bread and butter without using up my family’s food.

“The Church Council at St Oswald’s now has an arrangement with a local newsagent who keeps £10 of church money in his till.

“I also keep a bag of food by the front door which is taken from the Church’s collection for the foodbank.”

“A variety of people come for help. They are mostly men.

“Some of them are so ill that they aren’t capable of carrying their food parcel home so I end up giving them a lift . They are often poorly clothed and are cold and wet.

“One man walked from Accrington to get help here.”

Rev Morris said: “I am deeply concerned. This should not be happening in modern Britain. It should not be happening in any civilised country.”

Bishop Philip said: “This letter does reflect what is happening in other parts of East Lancashire.

“I hear similar stories from other vicars with deprived parishes in Burnley, Nelson and Colne. I hear from people working on Stoops estate in Burnley that one third of in work families are choosing whether to heat or eat.

“This is not the kind of thing that should be happening in the fifth wealthiest country in the world.

“The real scandal is that there are still parents who cannot afford to feed their children properly.”

Father Roger Parker, of St Catherine’s Church in Todmorden Road, Burnley, said: “Rev Morris’s letter reflects my experience in the parish.

“I can get up to five or six callers a week in need of food or money for fuel.

“That is pretty normal now.”

Ros Duerden, manager of Blackburn Foodbank, said the number of callers using its service had risen from 638 in December 2013 to 1,215 in December 2014.

Mark Hirst, from Community Solutions North West, which runs foodbanks in Burnley, Pendle, Rossendale, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley, said: “We have seen a sharp rise in demand for our services in the last two years.”

Canon Andrew Hindley also said the number of bags of provisions given out on a Sunday at Blackburn Cathedral had risen by 50 per cent over the past two years.

Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson said: “I congratulate Rev Morris on helping the vulnerable which is what the church should do.

“The government’s economic policy and benefit changes are about helping people out of poverty into work and making work pay.”

His Rossendale and Darwen Tory MP Jake Berry added: “The new Universal Credit is about ironing out some of these problems and delays in benefits.”