CALLS have been made for Wrexham Council to reinstate long-term funding for the town’s Citizen’s Advice Bureau (CAB).

Earlier this month the authority’s executive board agreed to provide a £25,000 grant for the service over the next 12 months after making a dramatic U-turn on plans to cut funding entirely.

However, after meeting with staff from the service, members of the Plaid Cymru group say that falls short of the amount required to provide a full range of support, with the number of annual enquiries currently reaching 21,000.

The level of financial backing given to CAB, which provides free in-depth advice to people in Wrexham, has been gradually phased out by the council following a decision in 2015.

Before that it received more than £99,000 per year to provide advice on issues ranging from benefits queries, debt advice and housing issues to workers’ and consumer rights and immigration.

Group leader councillor Marc Jones said the agreed £25,000 will assist to keep the doors open in Grosvenor Road for now, but a review of services is now being considered from September 2018.

Cllr Jones said: “It’s clear from meeting with management at the Citizens Advice service that the important work they do in helping people with debt, welfare and benefits advice will be compromised by this cut.

“Sessions will be reduced and people in outlying areas will be unable to access the service locally.

“At a time when problems with personal debt, job insecurity, low pay and benefit changes are causing a lot of anxiety and problems, the county needs this service more than ever.

“The service has already cut its costs with staff not being replaced and people doing additional work for nothing.

“That’s not a sustainable way to keep things going and there’s a real risk that the entire service could collapse if funding isn’t restored.”

However Cllr Hugh Jones, Wrexham Council’s lead member for communities, partnerships, public protection and community safety, said the £25,000 sum to keep it going was requested by the service itself.

He added officers were continuing to hold discussions with CAB in a bid to secure its long-term viability.

Cllr Jones (Con) said: “The £25,000 figure was one cited by CAB during their correspondence with the executive director and that the funding would allow them to conduct 5,000 interviews during the current financial year.

“The figure arrived at for funding...is not an arbitrary one.

“I also made clear during that meeting that deliberations with CAB had been ongoing for some time and they had been made aware – repeatedly – of the decrease in funding which would come from ourselves.

“Regarding the long-term viability of the services provided by CAB, officer time has also been committed to work closely alongside their personnel to secure the viability of the advice service.

"We will continue to work with CAB to ensure that’s the case.”