Citizens Advice Bureaux

In December 2008 Mole Valley District Council’s Conservative Executive revealed its next budget. The budget included slashing the funding for the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux in Leatherhead and Dorking.

These C.A.Bs are funded almost entirely by Mole Valley District Council. They are an invaluable service as they provide free legal advice and information to local people.

Yet the Conservative Executive’s budget proposed to slash the C.A.B’s funding for the year 2009-10 by £10,000, with a further cut of £10,000 in 2010-11, and to terminate Leatherhead C.A.B’s subsidised lease. The lease was worth £35,000 per annum. If the Council no longer funded it, Leatherhead C.A.B would be forced out of its current premises.

The C.A.Bs are needed now more than ever. The Leatherhead and Dorking branches have reported a massive increase in the number of people coming to them for financial advice since the credit crunch began.

I organised a campaign to fight the threats to the C.A.B, and I also launched a petition. We collected more than 1,200 signatures and held a demonstration in Dorking and in Leatherhead. The C.A.B. also ran a campaign itself against the threatened cuts.

There was a lot of public support for the C.A.B. Many people told us when signing our petition, of how the C.A.B had really helped them out.

I am pleased to say that eventually the Council agreed to modify the planned cuts and the Leatherhead premises has been saved.

My huge thanks to all those who signed our petition. The fact that the Tories modified the cuts proves that local campaigning really can change things.

Our protest in Leatherhead town centre: