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Advice bureau under pressure


MORE than 13,000 people – 9,144 of them new clients – turned to Maidstone Citizen’s Advice Bureau for help in the year to April. Kent’s largest CAB saw slightly fewer people than the previous year, but the bureau found the number and com- plexity of problems – some 56,000 – increased. The most common involved benefits and tax credits (34%); debt (18%); relationships (11%); legal (10%); and em- ployment and housing (9% each). Other problems were with consumer goods and serv- ices, education, health, immi- gration, tax and utilities. It follows an equally difficult financial year for the CAB in


Jobs support THE harsh economic climate meant there was no fall in the number of clients approaching the CAB with issues regarding dismissals and wages. Employment adviser Tania


Weber said: “So far this year, we have obtained about £150,000 compensation for our clients, as well as enabling the reinstatement or retention of several others. “The number of women dis- missed appears to have in- creased this year, and a worrying proportion have been dismissedwhile pregnant or on maternity leave, which suggests some employers are discriminating against them.”


Maidstone, which faced a major cut in funding that led to redundancies and reduced hours for some paid staff. Only a lottery grant will


allow it to maintain a small highly-specialised advice team for borough residents in the key areas of debt management, ben- efits, employment and housing. In the meantime, the lottery transition money, which lasts two years, will be used to give further specialist training to all volunteer frontline staff. CAB also receives a core grant from Maidstone Council. Chief executive Bonny Mal-


hotra said: “We will want to keep our specialist salaried team, but we will have to look elsewhere for the money.”


Gateway centre, according to the CAB’s annual report, and for this, chairman Sir Michael Buckley praised the bureau team. He said: “Of clients surveyed,


97% said they were happy with the service they received [3% did not respond]; simi- larly, 97% that they would rec- ommend the bureau to others [3% did not respond]. “This is strong testimony to


Bonny Malhotra Advisors offered more help


last year to people at home, at outreach posts and by placing assessors at the Maidstone


Benefit changes hit home


IN the last financial year,Maid- stone CAB saw a huge increase in clients needing advice. A lot of this involved em- ployment and support al- lowances, following the radical shake-up of the benefit system. “The introduction of univer-


sal credit and personal inde- pendence payments will no doubt only increase the num- bers of clients accessing our service for advice as these ben- efits are introduced,” the CAB reported at its annual meeting. “As people’s in- and out-of-


work benefits are stopped, re- duced and/or frozen, this will have a knock-on effect and


Looking forward to brighter Christmas


THERE will be two separate Christmas light switch-ons in Maidstone. The main switch-on cere-


mony, to be performed by the Mayor of Maid- stone Cllr Clive English and the cast of the Ha- zlitt pantomime, will take place in Jubilee Square at 6pm on Fri- day, November 15. The High Street will be closed to all traffic from 4.30pm to 7pm. Last year’s “futuris-


tic” tree (pictured) is goingtobeplacedin Lower High Street, where the new paving should be complete, while this year’s new tree – standing 10 metres high – will be the focal point of the celebration. The second will take place on Thursday, November 21 at Fremlin Walk to mark the be- ginning of the late night shop- ping season.


The council set aside more


than £74,000 from last year’s budget underspend for Christ- mas lights improvement and the scheme has been extended to bring sparkle to more areas of the town centre. As well as a dra-


matic display planned for Jubilee Square and the upper High Street, there will be new dec- orations in St. Faith’s Street, Mill Street, Medway Street, the station end of Week Street, High Street, Bishops Way and Fairmeadow. These improve- mentswill replace the


last of the old lights with low- energy LED lights, a project that started in 2007. Union Street, Pudding Lane,


the upper and lower High Street, and Barker Road will have the old lights replaced with low energy displays.


many people will find they are unable to meet their weekly living expenditure. “This will mean that the bu-


reau will see an increase in en- quiries relating to debt and housing issues. “The introduction of the bed-


room tax and reduction to the amount of help people can re- ceive towards their council tax has already brought a lot of people to our service, con- cerned that they will not be able to pay their rent, be evicted, or that they will be taken to court for council tax arrears.”


the skill and dedication with which the staff of the bureau do their work, the trustee board, and I pay tribute to them.” Mr Malhotra added: “As long


as we have volunteers working at the CAB we will always have an open door for those who do not know where to turn.”


Help in figures In the year to April 2013, every week:


 289.55 hours were spent by CAB advisers helping clients;


 256 clients (or 51 a day) were seen;


 156.64 hours were spent on face-to-face client work;


 41.22 hours were spent advising clients on the phone;


 Advisers needed 65.43 hours to write up casework.


If you would like to become a CAB advisor, call 01622 750770.


Nursery reveals plans for out of school care


BRISHING Barn Nursery near Boughton Monchelsea has un- veiled a plan to extend its reach. The nursery, located at Brish-


ing Court Barn on thewest side of Brishing Lane, opened inOc- tober 2011 and has planning permission to cater for up to 76 children up to the age of five. An application has now been submitted to convert nearby Poplar Barn to provide pre- and after-school holiday care for up to 50 primary school children aged four to 10. The proposed operating


hours are from 7am to 7pm, the same as those of the existing nursery. The company says it would transport children to and from their respective pri- mary schools using eight to 10- seater vehicles. A supporting statement said: “During school term time, chil- dren would normally be pres- ent only between the hours of 7am and 9am and 3.30pm and 7pm, but during school holi-


days they would be on site throughout the day.” It is proposed to use the northern part of the existing yard for outdoor play, with the southern part retained for parking and drop-off/pick-up. Objections on transport is-


sues were lodged when the nursery was given planning permission in June 2011. The planning statement ar-


gued: “While the proposed use is likely to result in additional vehicle movements at the site, this will be largely limited to vehicles that are already on the highway network, children being delivered/collected on parents’ journeys to or from their workplace, so the impact of any additional traffic will be negligible. “Poplar Barn has planning permission for office use, which itself would generate traffic movements, mainly at peak times, a pattern repli- cated by the proposed use.”


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