The founder of a High Street night shelter destroyed by fire hopes to re-start the service.

Rob Sefton, who opened the Braintree Emergency Night Shelter (BENS) in 2012, said it was still too early to talk about specifics.

He said: “We can’t make plans yet because we have got no answers- we don’t know how long it’s going to take to fix up the building, we haven’t got enough information.

“We have got a three year lease on the building but I can’t even claim anything on my insurance yet.”

Mr Sefton, who is also a pastor at a church in Maldon, said he was in talks about re-opening the charity cafe which occupied the ground floor of the building in a new premises.

However, he held back on asking for donations until the full extent of the damage is known.

He said: “I have had a handful of donations so that’s good, but I can’t really ask people for money because I don’t know what we are going to do with it.

“When we have got plans I will be making an appeal and I’m sure it won’t take us long to come up with something.”