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Citizen's Advice Bureau needs new offices

Thursday, 21st June 2001.

HAVERHILL'S Citizen's Advice Bureau (CAB) is celebrating its 20th anniversary year but urgently searching for bigger premises to cope with its rising workload.

In the group's annual report, presented at its annual meeting on Wednesday, management committee member Eric Bowman wrote that, despite working for the CAB for two years, he has still never been inside the bureau office.

Coun Bowman, who is also Haverhill Town Mayor, cannot get his wheelchair into the upstairs office.

His dilemma highlights one of the Bureau's problems of difficult access, as well as lack of space.

Brigitte Haig, the Bureau's manager, said that since Coun Bowman had joined the Bureau, he had expanded their outreach work, with regular sessions now held at the Leiston Centre, Cangle Junction and the Burton Centre.

However, access was a problem for those in wheelchairs as well as those with other illness or disability or children in pushchairs.

"With more clients and more people volunteering, it makes it very uncomfortable to be in the premises where we are and we need to find new premises at the latest within two years' time.

"Our volunteers are enormously dedicated and have saved around £44,000 last year by the number of hours they have worked. I would like to thank our volunteers and all the organisations in the town who support us," Mrs Haig said.

Enquiries had risen by 13 per cent, with a total of 26,550 dealt with in the last year. European Social Fund cash had been used for a project to assess levels of need for CAB services, which revealed there was a 20 per cent unsatisfied need within the community. Efforts are being made to address this and the Bureau is still in needof a permanent treasurer.

The guest speaker was David Butler, head of policy and best value for St Edmundsbury Borough Council, who spoke on plans for modernising local government which had to be agreed by the end of July.

Haverhill Weekly News

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