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The organisation that provides a lifeline for so many people with problems of all kinds, The Citizens Advice Bureau [C.A.B.], is opening an outreach facility at Bidford, located within the library [Bramley Way, Bidford on Avon, B50 4QG].
The charity will be providing its usual confidential, impartial and non judgmental advice by appointment between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the first and third Friday of every month. Those wishing to make an appointment to see the highly trained advisor on duty should ring 01789 200136.
“We provide free help and support to anybody on a huge range of topics, from debt and divorce to employment and benefits” says Stratford upon Avon Bureau Manager Sue Green. “We are grateful to Warwickshire County Council and Bidford Parish Council for providing the funds to ensure we can provide the service for an initial two year period. For those that are unable to get to our main office in Stratford upon Avon it will be a vital local resource.”
Councillor Peter Barnes says: “I am very pleased that after our hard work together we have grants and equipment in place for the CAB outreach for a two year period. The service will be an asset to the community and will help with the establishment of the community library at Bidford.”
The Bidford facility is now one of seven outreach centres managed by the CAB’s Stratford upon Avon office in Meer Street, the others being Alcester, Lighthorne Heath, Shipston upon Stour, Southam, Studley, and Wellesbourne.
The Studley outreach facility is under review however: “The Studley outreach has been extremely well used over the past year but its funding ceases in March” says Sue Green. “We continue to look for replacement funding and hope that we can continue a service in some form at Studley”.
The organisation that provides a lifeline for so many people with problems of all kinds, The Citizens Advice Bureau, is opening an outreach facility at Lighthorne Heath, located within the Children’s Centre [Stratford Road, Lighthorne Heath, Warks, CV33 9TW]
The charity will be providing its usual confidential, impartial and non judgmental advice by appointment between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesday of every month. Those wishing to make an appointment to see the highly trained advisor on duty should ring 01789 200136.
“We provide free help and support to anybody on a huge range of topics, from debt and divorce to employment and benefits” says Stratford upon Avon Bureau Manager Sue Green. “We are grateful to Warwickshire County Council and the estate of the late David Wright, a long-serving volunteer for the local C.A.B., for providing the funds to ensure we can provide the service for a one year period. For those that are unable to get to our main office in Stratford upon Avon it will be a vital local resource.”
Local Councillor Peter Barnes commented: “Warwickshire County Council is totally supportive of the work carried out by the C.A.B. and obviously a measure of this support was the financial grant that I facilitated to provide much needed aid to the residents of Lighthorne Heath”.
The Lighthorne Heath facility is now one of seven outreach centres managed by the CAB’s Stratford upon Avon office in Meer Street, the others being Alcester, Bidford, Shipston upon Stour, Southam, Studley, and Wellesbourne.
We ran a stall at the Stratford upon Avon market in November and, thanks to the generosity of both those who donated items and those who bought them, we raised over £500 towards our survival fund.
All this was made possible by a posse of volunteer staff who gave up their morning and manned the stall in shifts. The picture shows just one group of those happy helpers.
We had a record turnout for our AGM on October 27th at the Town Hall. Following the formalities, Manager Sue Green reminded the audience that our district, at 377 square miles, is one of the largest in England that a CAB branch has to cover. She also reminded us that in the past year our own branch had helped over 5000 people with over 14,000 different issues, and that those issues are getting ever more complex.
The audience were then treated to an inspiring speech by Citizens Advice National Chair, John Gladwin, who outlined the national perspective and the increasing responsibility that the service will take on in its role as a constituent part of the ‘Big Society’. Part of that will be taking over what is currently known as ‘Consumer Direct’ and later ‘Consumer Focus’, the latter being currently under the auspices of ‘Which’.
Mr Gledwin re-iterated that the backbone of our service, our volunteers, are not recruited just because they are a cheap source of labour. He emphasised that they are unquestionably the best choice for the job, bringing as they do a huge range of skills and experience from all areas of social services, commerce and industry.
With funding under threat as never before his words of appreciation and encouragement buoyed up the many staff, volunteers, trustees, sponsors and friends in the audience.
A quiz night was held at the end of February 2011 to raise funds. Bureau volunteers and members of partner organisations managed to raise £430 including £155 from the raffle.
We were delighted with our AGM at the end of October 2010. It was great to see so many of our colleagues from the Citizen Advice Bureau and from partner organisations around the town supporting us. Nadhim Zahawi MP was our guest speaker, and the mayor Shelagh Sandle gave the welcoming speech.
Our next AGM will be on Thursday 27 October 2011 and our guest speaker will be John Gladwin, the national Citizens Advice Chair.
The Stratford-upon-Avon and District Citizens Advice Bureau held a fund raising market stall in November 2010. It raised a grand total of £452.
We now have an outreach facility in Studley, to make CAB advice more widely available to people in that area. We already have outreach facilities in Alcester, Wellesbourne, Shipston and Southam which are vital to help people who cannot get to us in Stratford. We identified that there was a gap in Studley, and following the awarding of a grant by Warwickshire County Council we are able to operate for one year, one day a week. We started the service on 22 February 2011 in the Studley Village Hall, in the Quiet Room.
It has been confirmed that Stratford upon Avon County Court will close and will be re-located to new, purpose-built courts in Leamington Spa. This is part of a national review of the court service and although the need for efficiency is clear, the implications for our clients, particularly some of the most vulnerable, are serious.
Our submissions to the Ministry of Justice included the suggestion, supported by the District Council, that they should try to find an alternative location in Stratford, e.g. in the District Council offices.
© Stratford-upon-Avon and District Citizens Advice Bureau, a company limited by Guarantee, registered in England and Wales (Number 5168480). Charity Registration No: 1105342. All photographs © Citizens Advice. Photographs used with permission.