The CEO of Citizens Advice East Devon, Tim Bridger, has tonight welcomed the support of Honiton Town Council for the ongoing work in the town.

At the meeting of 11 January 2021, the Council voted to approve grants to fifteen community organisations, including Citizens Advice.

Tim explained 'Citizens Advice East Devon has been a fixture in the town for nearly 40 years, working tirelessly to support the people of Honiton with their advice needs.

'Our services cover a huge range of areas, including welfare and benefits, housing, employment, debt, consumer issues, immigration, social care, fuel poverty and a lot more besides.

'We have added a number of new services to our roster from this January, including three new specialist projects around redundancy and skills training, an accredited online Money Management course, and a Private Sector Housing service.

'We are hugely grateful to the local councils and community groups for their support for our work and for allowing us to expand what we are doing in the town.'

Tim did clarify that there had been some apparent confusion amongst the Councillors about the ongoing work of Citizens Advice, and even the suggestion from two Councillor that the service had closed.

Tim elaborated: "One of the Councillors did incorrectly state that Citizens Advice had closed.

"I just want to reassure all of our clients that this is very much not true.

"The Councillor in question was in fact appointed as the Town Council representative for our organisation as recently as November and receives updates from our organisation as a matter of course.

"Clearly they made an honest mistake during the meeting, and we are sure they will want to clarify the situation very soon.

"The record from the meeting should show that councillors were made fully aware in the application and through ongoing communications that Citizens Advice East Devon continues to work in and for the town."

Team Leader Sheran Taylor added that Citizens Advice had been chosen as a delivery partner on behalf of Devon County Council, to administer grants to people in Devon who are in food or fuel need.

Sheran explained: "As part of the £2million Covid Winter Support Fund, DCC will be offering one-off grants to people in food or fuel need.

"These come in the form of payments for energy – gas or electric – and can be for pre-payment meters, smart meters or people with online accounts.

"Anyone presenting to Citizens Advice in food or fuel need can be considered for a grant.

"We are hugely excited to be working with Devon County on this, and it is clear evidence of how we continue to evolve what are doing to support vulnerable people in these difficult times."

There are a number of ways people can get in touch with Citizens Advice East Devon:

You can phone the local number on 01395 265 070, where calls will be taken live during working hours, and you can leave a message outside those hours – an advisor will call you back within 24 hours.

You can call the Adviceline service on 03444 111 444, and talk to an advisor in working hours.

You can text ADVICE to 82727, and an advisor will call you back.

You can also email [email protected], to receive email advice or a telephone call back.

You can access the website at citizensadviceeastdevon.org, or look at the Facebook page - @CitizensAdviceEastDevon.

Our national site – citizensadvice.org.uk – also contains a wealth of up-to-date information and advice.