The Devizes community is being called together next week to form a welcoming committee and a master plan for how to best help any refugees from Ukraine who may come to the town.

A public meeting will be held at the town hall on Wednesday, March 23 at 6.30pm. Organisers are inviting community groups, churches, schools, businesses and individual residents to attend.

“The idea is for us all to come together collectively to discuss and decide how we can best support Ukrainian refugees who may come here,” said the Rev Keith Brindle of St James’s Church, who is helping to organise the event.

He added: “We have yet to see how many refugees may come here, at the moment we just don’t know. But I do know that people locally have responded to the call to offer to make their homes available to take in refugees.

“We need to decide on things like how can the community best welcome them, putting any refugees in touch with other Ukrainians who live in the area and organising translators, if needed.

“We also need to discuss how we can also support those families who will take in refugees. We all need to decide what is the right thing to do and how to do it well.”