Herefordshire could become first county in England to lose Citizen's Advice Bureau

Unless emergency funding can be secured to protect the CAB's services, the Hereford branch will close next June – two months before its 50th anniversary.

It means thousands of the county’s poorest and most vulnerable people could be left without the independent advice and support they currently have access to.

Claire Keetch, Chief Executive of Herefordshire CAB, said: "Herefordshire CAB has delivered essential advice services for nearly 50 years, making a real difference to the lives of tens of thousands of people.

"Last year alone, the organisation resolved nearly 15,000 advice problems and improved the financial position of people in this county by £4.3millions."

The CAB service, she said, improves the lives of ordinary people, delivering savings to the council and NHS through helping people pay their council tax, preventing homelessness and reducing the stress of ill health often associated with unresolved problems.

"For every advice session our waiting room is filled with people, many desperate for help, and for whom the CAB is the final safety net. Access to high quality, trusted legal advice is not a luxury but an integral part of a decent, fair and equitable society and we are really very concerned that the lives of very many people in this county will be made worse because they are unable to access the advice they need."

Herefordshire Council’s contract with HCAB ended on March 31 this year after announcing it would cut the funding support it provided in favour of its own information advice model.

In November last year, full council voted through an amendment to the 2015-16 budget calling for £50,000 of transition funding to be channelled from the council’s reserves to HCAB.

Outreach locations in the county’s market towns closed earlier this year as a result of funding cuts.

Mrs Keetch said she did not know where clients could turn should HCAB be forced to close.

"We are obviously still making every effort to make sure that moment in June doesn't come but if it does we are going to be needing to tell our clients something in terms of what other options they have got and at the moment that's really tricky,” she said.

"If Herefordshire CAB closes it will be the only county in England that doesn't have a CAB and I think that's heart-breaking.

"Reducing the services or closing a service doesn't mean the need goes away. People still have those problems whether the service is there or the door is open or not."

Martin Samuels, Herefordshire Council’s director of adults and wellbeing, said the council was committed to working with key partners, including HCAB, to identify how best to ensure local people had access to advice.

"Given the very challenging financial position facing us, it has for some years been recognised that it is no longer realistic for this service to be dependent on ongoing council funding,” he said, adding that councils and CABs across the country faced similar challenges.

It was acknowledged in 2010, he said, that significant reductions in council funding would mean the CAB would need to identify innovative ways in which to continue to serve Herefordshire residents, while securing funding through alternative sources.

"Many councils across the country have already significantly reduced funding to their local CAB and a number expect to cease all direct funding soon," he added.

"The CAB continues to be provided with free accommodation in Hereford, at a significant cost to the council. It is hoped that this work will enable Herefordshire CAB to remain open sustainably in the longer term.”