Lancaster Citizens Advice Bureau

Lancaster Citizens Advice Bureau was founded at the start of the Second World War, to provide information and advice to citizens in those difficult times. Over these 70 years the aims and principles of the service have remained essentially unchanged. Advice is free, confidential, impartial and independent, and as well as advice and support the Bureau aims to gather evidence about policies and practices that affect people’s lives and to lobby to improve them.

The Bureau’s first location in September 1939 was in New Street with just two people, and although it moved from there first to Castle Hill, and then to Church Street, it remained a small operation with only around three volunteer staff. It moved to its present address, 87 King Street, in 1966, where it was commented that there was ‘more space and privacy for interviewing.’ This consisted of one room divided into three, forming the office and two interview rooms. The Bureau’s services were gradually becoming more professional, extending into representation at tribunals and at County Court, and in 1989 the Bureau was ‘bursting at the seams.’ More space was secured at the premises in King Street in 1996, and since then the Bureau has grown further. It now has 13 paid staff, some full-time and some part-time, 40 volunteer advisers, 26 other volunteer workers, and 10 Trustee Board members, whose time is also given voluntarily.





	Lancaster Citizens Advice Bureau Lancaster Citizens Advice Bureau was founded at the start of the Second World War, to provide information and advice to citizens in those difficult times. Over these 70 years the aims and principles of the service have remained essentially unchanged. Advice is free, confidential, impartial and independent, and as well as advice and support the Bureau aims to gather evidence about policies and practices that affect people’s lives and to lobby to improve them. The Bureau’s first location in September 1939 was in New Street with just two people, and although it moved from there first to Castle Hill, and then to Church Street, it remained a small operation with only around three volunteer staff. It moved to its present address, 87 King Street, in 1966, where it was commented that there was ‘more space and privacy for interviewing.’ This consisted of one room divided into three, forming the office and two interview rooms. The Bureau’s services were gradually becoming more professional, extending into representation at tribunals and at County Court, and in 1989 the Bureau was ‘bursting at the seams.’ More space was secured at the premises in King Street in 1996, and since then the Bureau has grown further. It now has 13 paid staff, some full-time and some part-time, 40 volunteer advisers, 26 other volunteer workers, and 10 Trustee Board members, whose time is also given voluntarily.