Advice service saved from axe (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Advice service saved from axe

THE short-term future of a crucial advice lifeline in west Wiltshire looks to have been secured after a £16,000 funding shortfall threatened to force cutbacks.

West Wiltshire Citizens Advice Bureau manager Sarah Cardy said its Warminster base was facing the axe unless funders could finance the service's £138,000 annual budget.

But West Wiltshire District Council's deputy leader Graham Payne vowed the authority was planning to increase funding from £50,000 to £57,000, with another possible £8,000 coming in September.

The bureau's caseload has doubled over the past year from 600 to 1,200 inquiries a month, with more people than ever needing help with debt, benefits and housing issues.

Fears were first raised when district council leisure and rural affairs portfolio holder Ernie Clark revealed the bureau would only be in-line for an annual grant of £50,000 leaving bosses £16,000 short.

Mrs Cardy appealed to cabinet members at a meeting last Wednesday to increase funding so the CAB's core service could continue unaffected. Wiltshire County Council and four west Wiltshire town councils have already pledged more than £60,000 between them.

Mrs Cardy said she hoped the district council would come through.

"It was a situation where if we did not get an increase in our funding it would have meant cuts, which could have included pulling out of Warminster altogether," she said.

"There could have been staff cuts. Which member of staff could we afford to lose?

"We know we are not meeting demand. People can sit and wait for two hours or more. People also complain we don't answer the phone enough but we don't have the staff to do it."

Cllr Payne said there was no danger of a shortfall.

He said: "I have given my assurances that the CAB will get £57,000 worth of funding. We will also look very favourably towards another £8,000 in September."

Cllr Payne said the reinstated £57,000 grant would be confirmed in a budget meeting on Wednesday.

The £138,000 budget will help keep the four-days-a-week service afloat with sessions in Trowbridge, Melksham and Warminster.