Yorkshire Water delivers 480 bottles of water for Leeds homeless after St George's Crypt appeal

St George's Crypt, based in Great George Street in Leeds city centre, pushed out an urgent appeal on Wednesday in which the charity said that homeless people sleeping rough in the baking sun face a 'huge struggle' and will suffer from dehydration as well as sunburn.

-> How hot does it have to be before you can legally go home from work? Your rights explainedA spokesman for the charity said: "We need your Help:

"Forecasters say temperatures in some parts could reach 36C.

"Homeless and vulnerable people across the city will suffer from dehydration and sunburn as the heat takes hold.

"For those living on the streets, there is often no escape from the baking sun and sleeping rough means it can be a huge struggle to have access to clean water to drink.

"We are in desperate need of bottled water donations for our clients and the vulnerable homeless people who come to our door for a drink.

"If you can help, please drop the bottled water off at the Crypt."

On Thursday, Yorkshire Water got in touch with the Yorkshire Evening Post after seeing our story online and pledged to send bottled water to the charity.In the past two days, two trucks have turned up at the charity's site with a total of 480 two-litre bottles of water.

St George's Crypt administrator Martin Barry said: "Needless to say, we are very grateful for the donation of bottled water that we have received from Yorkshire Water during this period of hot weather."

Yorkshire Water stressed that the donation is unusual given its stance on avoiding use of plastic where possible.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Water said: "We've delivered 480 two-litre bottles and they’ll let us know if they need anymore tomorrow.

"We have a big commitment as a water company to reduce our plastic usage so bottled water is not something we generally give out anymore, instead we have a water bar at part of our Yorkshire on Tap anti-plastics campaign that we take to certain events so people can bring their own bottles and refill.

"Bottled water is just usually for emergency supply if we have supply issues and we’re also looking at alternatives for these purposes too with an aim of reducing our own plastic wastage further.

"In cases like this however, we want to do what we can to help.

"We are also fully committed to a partnership with refill which is all about promoting filling up existing bottles with our lovely tap water too and there are thousands of businesses and organisations in Yorkshire signed up to free water points."