THE CAB service in Ross will stop on June 1st following a major reduction in funding from Herefordshire Council.

The service will also close in Leominster, Ledbury and Bromyard and opening hours in Hereford will be reduced to three mornings a week.

In January Herefordshire Council ended its long standing grant support to the Citizens Advice Bureaux, funding which stood at over £117,000 per annum. In February this year Full Council approved a one off £50,000 award to the bureau.

Citizens Advice is the best known, trusted and respected independent source of advice, provided free-of-charge and particularly valuable to people who do not have the means to pay for advice. In the last year the bureau handled over 6,000 cases locally, providing financial benefit of nearly £4 million to some of Herefordshire's poorest citizens.

Claire Keetch, Chief Executive of Herefordshire CAB told the Ross Gazette:?"Only this year Herefordshire CAB achieved an audit score placing it in the top 7% of bureau's in England and Wales and the auditor commented on the fact that the staff and volunteer teams place a high value on the quality of service we deliver.

"There remain thousands of people in Herefordshire who need help navigating the complex problems life throws up, whether that is debt, benefits, housing, employment or one of the many other legal issues the CAB deals with. It will be a tragedy if this absolutely essential service is no longer available to the Herefordshire's citizens.

Mrs Keetch said that by making service reductions, together with staff redundancies, Trustees of the CAB seek to secure at least some level of service for the next twelve months whilst exploring alternative options, recognising that unless significant new funding can be found the general advice service will continue to be at risk after that period.