1:00pm Monday 17th November 2008
By Timothy John
NORTH Dorset’s Citizens Advice Bureau may have been thrown a lifeline.
Operating from a headquarters in Gillingham, the advice charity helps people across the district from outreach services at Blandford, Shaftesbury, Stalbridge and Sturminster Newton.
The struggling service is heavily dependent on funding from cash-strapped North Dorset District Council, which this year pumped £75,000 into the service.
But government capping has forced the council to cut all but the services it is legally obliged to provide, placing a question mark over its continued support for the CAB.
But in an interview with the Daily Echo, council leader Peter Webb has raised hopes that the CAB will continue to receive district council cash.
“The likelihood is that when the council reviews its medium-term financial plan, it will look to extend funding into the future,” he said.
“It’s not just about being kind. The CAB performs a valuable public function, providing advice on areas beyond the council’s expertise, but which overlap with the services it provides.”
Bev Higgs, the manager of the North Dorset division of the advice charity, said efforts to spread funding among town and parish councils in the district had failed.
“We’re having to work really hard with the local authority, or we will be writing an exit strategy for the CAB in North Dorset in two years’ time,” she said. “The CAB is worth about £1.4 million a year to North Dorset’s economy.
“To sacrifice that benefit for funding of between £70,000 and £100,000 would be political, economic and social suicide.”
More than 20 volunteers give front-line advice on any subject of concern to clients, but deal mainly with enquiries on debt, housing and employment.
“This recession won’t really bite until next year, and it’s going to be horrible,” said Mrs Higgs.
“Nationally, the CAB has experienced a 52 per cent increase in enquiries about employment over the last six months.”
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