Woking MP Jonathan Lord has condemned Woking Borough Council’s “heartless” funding cuts to Citizens Advice Woking and will stand alongside the charity’s angry staff and volunteers at a protest at the Civic Offices this evening (Thursday, February 8, 2024).

Mr Lord said: “I share the deep concerns of volunteers and residents regarding Woking council’s proposals to effectively defund Citizens Advice Woking, thereby threatening its existence as we currently know it.

“In my very first column in the News & Mail last September, I raised these same concerns and said that ‘I think there’s a very real danger our council will not be able to cope properly with all the enquiries and casework if CAW is no longer there to support’.

“As I understand it, Woking council have not carried out sufficient analysis to assess the impact of the closure of Citizens Advice or, at the very least, the impact of a massive reduction in its services, and, not least, the impact this would have on vulnerable residents.

“What about the potential increased costs to the council if it has to start providing the most important services that Citizen’s Advice currently provide?

“Last year, I welcomed the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Mel Stride MP, to Citizens Advice, and it was clear to me then, as it is now, that Citizens Advice Woking undertake a huge amount of work to support the vulnerable, including helping the council to fulfil its statutory duties in terms of housing and homelessness advice.

“I will be joining many Citizens Advice volunteers in a protest outside the council’s offices to urge the current council administration to rethink their disastrous and, frankly, heartless proposals.”

Mr Lord’s outspoken criticism of the council will be welcomed by Citizens Advice volunteers who have been prominent in organising the protest, which begins at 6pm.

The volunteers despair that the cuts will jeopardise the more than 7,000 clients on whose behalf CAW have worked so diligently, and successfully, and that those clients will soon have nowhere to turn. They believe no other voluntary organisation in the borough could replicate CAW’s positive outcomes for clients, and are urging residents to join their protest and write to their local councillors to make their voices heard.

The council recently allocated Citizens Advice Woking (CAW) £30,000 from the government-backed UK Shared Prosperity Fund to support CAW’s move to a more sustainable business model and secure funding from alternative sources.

In total, however, the cuts have reduced CAW’s annual income by some £160,000, which will significantly impact the services CAW can deliver from April.

Providing an update on the council’s budget savings, Cllr Ann-Marie Barker said: “The council is working with Citizens Advice Woking and Woking Community Transport, two charities which provided an invaluable service in the borough and had been the most significant recipients of funds in the past, to try to find a way ahead in which they could continue to deliver a reduced service for local people.”

Cllr Barker urged both groups to collaborate with the council rather than campaign against it, stressing “that there was no money in council budgets for grants”.