IMPASSIONED pleas to West Somerset Council to reverse a decision to cut its annual grant to the West Somerset Advice Bureau by £3,400 were rejected by councillors at their budget meeting last Wednesday (February 22).

Cllr Peter Murphy had argued that the bureau did “precious and good work” and do with the money: “If we can’t support our voluntary sector in this district, why are we here?”

In response, council leader Cllr Anthony Trollope-Bellew said the council was still giving the bureau over £30,000 and, if it gave the extra money now, the council would have to find savings of double that amount next year.

Before the discussion, Keith Routledge, a trustee and volunteer adviser at the advice bureau, told councillors: “The bureau is a local charity that is well-respected for achieving significant outcomes for the West Somerset community.

“We deal with a range of matters that affect our daily lives and give help as well as advice to people who find it difficult to deal with matters that many others, such as ourselves, take in their stride. It is the most vulnerable that gain most.”

Mr Routledge said that, as a result of reduced funding, the bureau had had to cut staffing of core services from nine to four over the last two years.

“We have now reached a point where the day to day services are at risk,” he said.

“Bids to fund advice work have not been successful so, to address that risk, we are forsaking funds that we put aside for building improvement work in order to hire another skilled adviser.

“Obtaining funds for building work is more likely than for advice work.”

Mr Routledge told members the trustees had agreed to form a partnership with Citizens’ Advice Sedgemoor.

Although both services will retain their own identity,“we are exploring ways of working together to save costs, strengthen services across West Somerset and Sedgemoor and improve specialist support to our volunteer workforces.”