A VOLUNTEER group based in York has been awarded £5,000 for its work in the city.

Street Angels York was awarded the funding by Lloyds Banking Group, through a public vote, and will put it towards a bus for the service.

Jennifer Locke, co-ordinator, has worked at Street Angels York since it was set up in October 2009 and said the award was humbling.

She said: “We are really pleased to be receiving this money and to be winning through a public vote is fantastic.

“We have teams of volunteers that head out on the streets on Friday and Saturday nights to help vulnerable people, drunk people and just making sure people get home safely. We hand out between six and eight bottles of water a night and probably about four pairs of flip flops but we have always wanted to have a safe haven that we could take people back to. So the money will go towards buying a double-decker bus.”