CITIZENS Advice Service workers have won a further four years funding to provide its services in Knutsford.

Knutsford Town Council agreed at its meeting on Monday to fund the service in the town for a further four years, until 2023/24, at a cost of £81,735.

The cost ranges from £19,830 for 2020/21, which is equivalent to 28p a month for a Band D property, to £21,045 in 2023/24.

The service offers drop-in sessions at the town council offices in Toft Road on Wednesday between 10am and 12.30pm, and appointments only on Friday at 10am, 11am and midday.

There is also a drop-in session at The Welcome Café at Longridge on Wednesday between 2pm and 4pm.

A report to the council from Will McKellar, chief officer of the Citizens Advice Cheshire East North said: “CACN has identified and responded to the real need for our information and advice services in Knutsford.

“Over the last four years there has been a clear increase in the number of people accessing our services, the number of issues these people are bringing to us and the complexity of those issues.

“The people who make use of our face to face services in Knutsford do so because their issue is so difficult as to make self-help a none option or that it is beyond the individual’s personal resources to resolve.

“Knutsford benefits from notable entrepreneurial and economic success, making it a great place to live and work.

“An indirect consequence of this success is that the statutory and non-statutory support services, abundant in other localities, are not so evident when people do need the kind of help provided by Citizens Advice; in truth there are no other comparable, free at the point of delivery alternatives.

“If Citizens Advice were to scale back or withdraw from Knutsford, the 1,000 of so clients who have already used our service would be left unsupported and without a service.”

Cllr Stewart Gardiner said the Citizens Advice Service did an excellent job, a sentiment which was echoed by the council.

He said: “Knutsford’s poverty is hidden in the prettiness of our streets and the large houses that are viewed as people drive in and out of our town.

“It is very easy for hard-working individuals to find themselves in difficulty through no fault of their own, because of domestic changes or work circumstances, and if it wasn’t for the Citizens Advice Service these people would find it very, very difficult.”

Benefits and debt account for 35 per cent and 30 per cent respectively of the inquiries to the service.