COUNCIL bosses have outlined how they will spend £1.53m to help struggling Bury families after the pandemic.

Bury Council has been allocated the cash via the government’s hardship fund - and the authority was required to detail its spending priorities.

An extension of free school meals, assisting 6,470 young people, will run until next Easter, taking the bulk of the grant, at £582,300, alongside school holiday lunch support for the October half-term, Christmas, February half-term and Easter breaks, for 3,346 families.

Those on council tax support will be entitled to a £100 Edenred fuel voucher - this will cost £532,200 for 5,232 households.

Another £70,000 is being allocated for families working with the authority’s early help team, school pastoral units and care leavers.

The same sum will be directed at ‘vulnerable people’ identified by various public services.

And £50,000 is being set aside for at-risk groups singled out by the voluntary, charity and faith sector, with £65,000 for self-referrals to Six Towns Housing support services.

Funding of £50,000 is being given to the borough’s foodbanks, inclusive of a £10,000 reserve for non-affiliated groups. The support for Bury Community Support Network organisations has doubled.

The plans also show a £100,000 uplift for Bury Resilience Fund.

In a report, Lynn Risdale, the council’s deputy chief executive, said: “The expectation is that the Household Support Fund should primarily be used to support households in the most need with food, energy and water bills.

“It can also be used to support households with essential costs related to those items and with wider essential costs.

“In exceptional cases of genuine emergency, it can additionally be used to support housing costs where existing housing support schemes do not meet this exceptional need.

“At least 50 per cent of the total funding must be spent on families with children.”

Work has been designed to mirror the council’s anti-poverty strategy.