NORTH Yorkshire is getting £1 million from bankers’ fines to help veterans in the county.

The Chancellor has given LIBOR funding to a group of organisations led by Community First Yorkshire (formerly Rural Action Yorkshire), part of the Aged Veterans Fund operating across the UK.

The money will be used to set up a three-year project giving extra health, wellbeing and social care support to ex-forces personnel born before 1950, and to anyone who completed National Service.

It will mean greater help for surviving Second World War veterans, and for people who served in the Falklands, Northern Ireland and the Gulf War.

Leah Swain, chief executive of Community First Yorkshire, said: “This is a fantastic opportunity to work with our partners to raise the profile of older veterans.

“We will be offering practical help, befriending, and the chance to try new things and volunteer.

“By building local networks we will support older veterans to identify and achieve their goals, whether that’s making their home warmer, learning to email family abroad, or getting out and about more often.”

Neil Irving, from North Yorkshire County Council, said with a large ex-forces community in the county, the project would help a lot of people with problems like loneliness and isolation, and accessing the services they need.

The partnership is currently finalising the services they will offer and the service will launch in the summer, he added.

Leah said: “The work will be informed by the views and feedback of veterans – it is their support service and we very much want them to be able to shape it.”