Post by Colin Henderson on Jun 11, 2012 21:40:26 GMT
Eden Citizens Advice Bureau is to become a branch of Carlisle CAB and go from 3 days to just one day a week following cuts by the local authority. The alternative was closure.
Local volunteers have appealed to the community for funds to keep the doors open. I wonder if Martin Lewis's £million will be used to stop damage like this?
"Eden advice service in funding crisis
EDEN Citizens Advice Bureau might have to limit its opening hours to just one day a week if extra funding cannot be secured.
The charity, which is run by a team of paid managers and unpaid volunteers, has been open three days a week, but volunteers say that despite efforts to reduce overheads, they simply cannot afford to offer the current level of service any longer.
The service was under threat of closure until a merger with the Carlisle Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) was agreed. This will save some management costs while enabling Eden to keep its own centre. But it will probably be manned on only one day a week."
Post by Colin Henderson on Sept 17, 2012 13:43:11 GMT
I'm pleased to report that after the cuts made by the local council, Eden DC, after a LOT of profile-raising and fuss-making the County Council have finally stepped in with some funding to keep the current service going a little longer:
"People in Eden will continue to benefit from a service offering free advice thanks to funding from Cumbria County Council.
Councillors today (Wednesday 12 September) gave the go-ahead to provide Citizens Advice Bureau in Eden with a one-off funding grant of £18,000 to help the generalist advice service to run until the end of March 2014.
The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) provides free, independent, confidential and impartial advice to everyone on their rights and responsibilities and in 2011/12 dealt with 4,841 separate issues from 1,442 clients across the district.
This £18,000 grant from the county council’s Eden Local Committee, goes some way to securing the CAB’s future at its current levels of service for another 18 months and gives time for the organisation to secure alternative longer-term funding sources.
The CAB currently offers generalist advice and specialist debt advice services with the generalist advice service being open three days a week from an office in Penrith and on Tuesday afternoons in Appleby. The specialists Money Advice service is funded by the county council and has been delivered by the bureau since 2007."
