DIDCOT’S Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) could be stripped back to a skeleton service following its eviction from the Civic Hall by Didcot Town Council. The advice service, which has dealt with 5,800 inquiries at its Didcot office over the last year, is struggling to find premises and may be cut back or moved to Wallingford until it can find an affordable new office. The service’s trustees are meeting tonight to discuss how the service can survive, after Didcot Town Council decided it should not have a place in the Civic Hall after its revamp. Councillors voted to evict the service from the hall in August. Manager Judith Abela said: “We are not in the position where we can just go and find a commercial premises, because the rent is going to be £10,000 or £15,000 a year.” Councillor John Flood, who chairs the Civic Hall management committee, said: “It has grown bigger and more quickly than our own offices, and they have more staff than the town council now. “These are difficult times, and we cannot afford to do everything we did before. “Fifteen years free of rent and a building built at no cost to them means they have had a fair shake out of Didcot’s taxpayers.”
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