MAJOR cuts to Burnley and Padiham’s Citizens Advice Bureau could force it to close.

Town hall bosses have been accused of hitting Burnley’s most vulnerable residents the hardest after proposing to halve the grant given to the advice offices in St James’s Street, Burnley, and Padiham Town Hall.

And Peter Kenyon, chairman of the Burnley’s CAB’s trustees, said the move could force the organisation into insolvency.

Plans have been unveiled by the borough’s Liberal Democrat administration for cuts and ‘efficiency savings’ totalling £437,000 for the next financial year, amid a reduction, in real terms, in the grant received from Whitehall.

But slashing the CAB grant by £75,000, the largest single cut in the package, has been strongly criticised by opposition councillors.

The move is also another blow for the CAB, which saw its budget reduced by £100,000 in 2007-2008 to around £150,000 for this financial year.

It has also seen its workload more than double in the past year because of the recession and people struggling with debt, and currently deals with around 700 cases a month.

Peter Kenyon, chairman of Burnley CAB’s trustees, said staff faced losing their jobs.

He said: “If it is cut back to this extent then it would put us in a situation where we were insolvent.

“There is around £20,000 in our reserves and we have a number of employees. So with these levels of cuts, we would be obliged to offer redundancy pay and we cannot afford to do that.”

Mr Kenyon said that the office had only just returned to some semblance of normality following several redundancies, prompted by the last funding cutback. Currently there are seven paid staff and 26 volunteers within the Burnley operation.

Claire Strachan has recently took over as joint manager of the Burnley and Pendle CAB branches, after a partnership was forged between the two offices in September.

She said: “We understand that the council’s finances are stretched but in the current economic climate this seems ridiculous.”

An efficiency drive has seen the average cost per case, dealt with by the bureau, drop from £30 to £17. The national average is £25.

Mrs Strachan said: “We would probably have to close down because we have a number of contracts with various organisations.”

The CAB is involved in a number of initiatives designed to provide people with the skills to move on and secure full employment.

And the Burnley team has a deal with East Lancashire Primary Care Trust where an advisor travels to GP surgeries and offers counselling to people suffering from anxiety and depression, linked to debt and welfare issues.

Coun Julie Cooper, Labour group leader, said: “This is hitting the most vulnerable people in town and we will be opposing this.

“I live in the real world and I know that cuts have to be made but why is it always people who need the most help that have to bear the brunt?”

Council leader Coun Gordon Birtwistle said that the proposal was “regrettable” and it was accepted that the CAB supported a number of services in Burnley.

But he said: “Unfortunately we have to protect our core services, which are delivering cleaner and safer streets and greater prosperity to Burnley.”

Coun Birtwistle said that the council’s government grant had effectively been cut by six per cent in recent years.

“The government has slashed our grant for next year and as Gordon Brown has bankrupted the country, savings have to be made.”