West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare is gearing up to move into new premises after the council agreed to help out with a rent subsidy.

The foodshare hands out vital food supplies to families in need across the region and since being set up has given out more than 12,000 emergency food parcels.

In May, the organisation hit a setback when rats infested its premises at Broadmeadow Industrial Estate in Dumbarton, leading to a large amount of food having to be thrown out.

The foodshare managed to relocate within just 24 hours to its current home at the town’s Leven Valley Enterprise Centre in Castlehill.

Since then, discussions have been taking place with West Dunbartonshire Council about finding the organisation a more permanent home.

Following the foodshare’s AGM last week, board secretary Stewart Dunsmore told the Reporter the Phoenix Centre at Quarryknowe, in Castlehill, will become the new base.

He said: “We’ve been offered the premises by the council. We’ve been offered it at a year’s current rental for Lime Road which we had to move out of. It would be four or five times what we currently pay.

“We’ve said yes to a year at that rate and then we’re hoping for funding or do a deal with the council for future years. It gives us time.

“The Quarryknowe centre is a huge place and we’re quite taken with it.

“It allows us to do a lot of things. There’s a lot more room. It means we can extend and there’s the possibility of other groups coming in.” The foodshare plans to move in the coming months A West Dunbartonshire Council spokeswoman said: “The council really values and supports the work that Community Foodshare is doing in West Dunbartonshire. We are currently in close discussions with the group aimed at securing accommodation which best suits their needs both now and moving forward.” Councillor David McBride said: “The Labour administration values the much-needed work the Community Foodshare do in West Dunbartonshire.

“We have supported them since the beginning and when we were aware they needed a change of premises we wanted to help the organisation in any way we could. I hope our commitment to them will allow them to grow and prosper and continue to provide a lifeline to our residents”.

Councillor Jim Bollan added: “It is a bittersweet feeling to know that foodshare have had to secure premises for another year. I’m delighted they will be able to continue to help an ever increasing number of families, including the working poor, but equally despondent that we still need foodshare in 2015 to help people survive the poverty inducing effects of the policies coming from this brutal Tory government who have no compassion or sense of social justice. Lets make the anti-austerity message the number one issue in the elections in 2016, and bring closer the day we can abolish all foodbanks.”