A service offered to rough sleepers when temperatures plummet below zero has been open for more than 100 nights, the highest ever since it started eight years ago.

Such is the demand for the cold weather provision, created by Bradford Council to offer warmth to rough sleepers when temperatures hit zero, that a national charity is meeting with the Council’s partner agencies today to find ways of tackling demand for next year.

That is because there are fears an unchanged provison will not be able to cope with the sheer volume of people, including pensioners, needing the service, and the length of time they have been open this year.

The provision is expected to be open all week and marked 100 nights of opening last Friday because of the poor weather which saw 10ft snow drifts in Bradford last weekend.

Adam Clark, a project co-ordinator for Hope Housing, which provides accommodation in volunteers' homes, said the meeting with national organisation Homeless Link should help find ways of tackling demand when the service reopens in October.

The provision opens from October to April every year and first started eight years ago with a couple of charities, and has been in its current format for the past four years.

Organisations such as Inn Churches, Horton Housing, Street Reach, Incommunities and the Council join forces to find spaces for rough sleepers to protect them from the cold, and then try and help them find sustainable employment and a more permanent roof over their head.

“A number of services pull together above and beyond, with teams going down to doing extra work and hostels opening up communal spaces,” Mr Clark said.

“It does make it busier for all the people pulling together and is great because it means people are not sleeping outdoors.

“But usually the provision finishes in February, and the official date is the end of April.

“But it should not be below freezing at this time of year, and is concerning us how long it has been open for.

“Friday was the 100th night and that is a large number to be open really and we have never had that before.

“It is predicted to be open all this week.

“We are actually having a meeting today now. I chair the group for the provision, to see how we can develop for the next year in light of being so busy.

“We didn’t think we could run it like this every year. Normally we have our development meetings in the summer, but are doing it in March because the weather is so extreme this year and we want to be well prepared.”