Advice bureau to expand

A decade-long target to get larger premises for Ollerton and District Citizens’ Advice Bureau has been achieved.

The bureau, which offers advice on issues such as debt, benefits, housing, consumer, employment and immigration, has worked from two buildings either side of the Friar Tuck Café, Forest Court, for ten years.

The café is now empty so the bureau is moving into it and converting the buildings into one large premises.

It will provide a reception and waiting area for clients, two more interview rooms and better facilities for staff and volunteers.

The centre’s development manager, Mrs Jackie Insley, said the improved facilities would allow them to give a better service to clients.

She said: “The reception area will be staffed by a new member of staff so they will come and be greeted, and our new waiting area will be far better than our existing facilities.

“Our two new interview rooms means there should be a fall in waiting times.”

Mrs Insley said having more space for staff meant they could provide more outreach services to surrounding villages.

She said: “It has been ten years in the waiting and now we have got the opportunity and funding to do it.”

Mrs Insley said there was a greater need for the service at present because of the recession.

She said: “Demand has gone up quite significantly in the area of debt. We are also seeing a lot of clients come through with quite complex cases.”

Mrs Insley said the former café had become available at the right time.

She said: “If the building had not become available we would have had to make the best use of the space we had got.

“We could have looked at moving to new premises but because we own one of the buildings we are in, it didn’t make sense.

“The Housing Association is just down from us here and it is not far from the high street.”

The newly-refurbished centre is due to open next month.