Steven Broomhead is chief executive of Warrington Borough Council and writes a regular column for the Warrington Guardian

Every week interesting letters and items arrive unsolicited into the office.

One that arrived last week was a book by a local businesswoman Barbara Freeman called “You can Cook”. Barbara’s book is really good guidance on how on a very low budget people can produce healthy and nutritious meals.

If you’re like me, I need to learn from scratch to make a positive, enriching meal. I could be described as a bad chef.

Barbara’s book couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time after the Governor of the Bank of England warned of “apocalyptic food prices” in the near future.

The average Warrington family could see the annual food bills rise by £200 by the end of this year.

A one per cent increase in the overall inflation adds about £33.00 to the average family food bill.

We now have a town where there are more foodbanks than retail bank branches. What is needed now is appropriate and financial support to help to remedy the difficulties many Warrington families are now facing with inflation recorded last week at nine er cent.

A cost of living crisis is now becoming a sad reality for many in our town.

Barbara’s timely book provides a relative and cost effective stop gap set of ideas and a set of simple recipes for those families who struggle with their food budgets.

The recipes mainly use the items that are available from our excellent and much needed foodbanks.

This practical book is available from Barbara Freeman at Fresh Beginnings (www.fresh-beginnings.co.uk.

The council have agreed to support it and the first 100 copies are available free of charge.