Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Just back off from bureaux cutbacks
Dear Editor Thank you for your article reporting North Lanarkshire Council’s proposal to cut funding for the Citizens’ Advice Bureaux [Advertiser, June 15].
We would also like to thank the many local people who have contacted us to express their concern and support.
Over the years Airdrie and Coatbridge CABs have helped many hundreds of thousands of local families, and they are appalled at the prospect that we will have to cut back on our hours, dismiss staff and perhaps even close altogether as a result of the council’s decision.
We would like to reassure readers that we intend to fight to keep both bureaux open and fully functioning, so we can provide local people with the support they need.
We would also like to respond to the points made by the council spokesperson in your article.
They say that the CABs and other advice agencies across the county are “substantial duplication” and a “waste of resources”. This seems extraordinary, given that all five of the CABs in North Lanarkshire have never been busier.
Surely when more and more people are coming through our doors requesting emergency help, it is not a waste of resources to help them? If external funding has been secured for advice and information or welfare rights then it has been to employ additional staff to meet the increased demand, and not for the post funded by North Lanarkshire Council.
The spokesperson is also quoted as saying it is “potentially confusing” for residents that a number of advice centres are available.
The CAB is one of the strongest brands in the country, and independent surveys have regularly shown public approval ratings above 90 per cent. We do not believe the people of North Lanarkshire are confused in any way by the current structure of the local service.
As we reported last week, Airdrie and Coatbridge CABs between them saw 8636 clients last year: an increase of 10 per cent since the previous year.
We understand that funding is tight and that all councils have to make difficult funding decisions. But we remind the council again that a recent academic study found that the North Lanarkshire CABs collectively delivered nearly £8m to the local economy every year.
In addition to the social and human benefits we deliver every day, we consider our service to be excellent value for money, and we suggest that a cut of up to 57 per cent to our funding at this time would be economically as well as socially wrong.
Again, we reassure local people that our doors remain open and we are here to help them with any problem they have.
Aaliya Seyal and Marian Tobin, Managers, Airdrie and Coatbridge CABs