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John Stanley has taken the case for public funding for the Edenbridge and Westerham, and Tonbridge and Malling Citizens Advice Bureaux to the Prime Minister. John Stanley said today (23 August): In my letter to the Prime Minister I said: "I very much welcome the fact that you recently re-launched The Big Society Policy with its key strands of devolving power down to the local communities and harnessing voluntary and charitable endeavours. One of the key national networks that are well able to deliver The Big Society Policy on the ground are the local Citizens Advice Bureaux. In my constituency I have two such Bureaux - the Edenbridge and Westerham Citizens Advice Bureau and the Tonbridge and Malling Citizens Advice Bureau. Both provide an outstanding service for some of the most needy and disadvantaged members of the local community and, given the predominant use of volunteers, provide the service at a fraction of the cost at which the same service could be provided by public sector staff. However, as you will see from the attached letter of 30 July that I have received from the Chairman of the Edenbridge and Westerham Citizens Advice Bureau, Mr Graham Coldman, the Bureau's ability to deliver The Big Society Policy is threatened by the public expenditure cuts that local authorities are having to make. Indeed, you will note that Mr Coldman states that 'without core funding from the public purse our Bureau would be unable to survive, a situation which I suspect is the same for most, if not all Bureaux'. I should be grateful if you could try to find the time to reply to me personally on this fundamental difficulty in securing delivery of The Big Society Policy - namely that the very organisations best placed to deliver the policy cost-effectively, for example local citizens advice bureaux, are the bodies most at risk of being put out of business by local authority public expenditure cuts. Given this situation, I would be grateful if you could tell me in your reply whether the Government will ring-fence local authority funding of local Citizens Advice Bureaux at no less than its current level for each local authority and for each bureau. If it is possible for the new Coalition Government, notwithstanding the appalling debt mountain we have inherited, to ring-fence the vast sums of public expenditure for Health and Overseas Development, surely it must be possible to ring-fence the microscopic sum in comparison on which local Citizens Advice Bureaux are critically dependent on receiving from local authorities and are vital for the delivery of The Big Society Policy."
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