Wycombe Food Hub staff feel "scared for the future" after The Chilterns Shopping Centre announced its plan to close business and build homes.

Businesses in the Chilterns Shopping Centre will be forced to move elsewhere by Spring next year with Primark already confirmed to be moving into the former House of Fraser unit. 

Wycombe Food Hub, however, fears they have no home to go to given the cost of renting out buildings in the town centre.

The former Job Centre building on the High Street is a potential site for the food bank.

Bucks Free Press:

Megan Staples told the Free Press: "We are trying to raise money to go into a building but put it plainly, we're s*** scared.

"We've been told we'll be here until about April/June time and we're trying so hard to get a new building but everything is way out of our budget and we get no support from the council or higher-ups and everything has to be through grants."

Despite this, the local authority says it has 'provided financial support totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds to community projects in Wycombe which offer assistance to residents in need'.

Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet Member for Communities Arif Hussain said: "We have received a number of applications from the Wycombe Food Hub for assistance but some of these have not met our criteria for support or have not been accompanied with sufficient information to enable us to fund them.

“We continue to work with all community groups to support them in the valuable work they carry out in supporting residents in their local area, as far as we can within the resources available.”

Wycombe Food Hub has had to find its own way of raising £70,000 for the rent of the building, collecting more than £1,500 from the town's Christmas lights event.

Megan added: "The rent for the new building is about £70k to £80,000 a year and we won't get any discount on that.

"We would have to pay for that and that's without wages and refurbishments would add on another £40k so you're looking at £100 to £110,000 for refurbish/maintenance so you could be looking at a quarter of a million just as a max and that's before opening."

The job centre has already vacated the site and the 7,793 sq.ft. property has now been listed for sale for £750,000.

A spokesperson for Dandara Living Developments Ltd, who is behind the Chiltern Shopping Centre housing project, said earlier this month: “Tenants have been given a single point of contact to discuss matters related to the redevelopment of the site and have been offered one-on-one sessions to discuss specific enquiries related to their circumstances."

High Wycombe's MP Steve Baker has also been criticised for not offering his support to Wycombe Food Hub.

He responded: "All businesses located in the Chiltern shopping centre are having to move to allow the building to be redeveloped for much-needed new homes. Wycombe Food Hub is not a charity but a company.

"I can find no approach from Wycombe Food Hub asking for my involvement in helping them find new premises."