The Citizens Advice Bureau in Bath and North East Somerset has won a temporary reprieve from planned budget cuts of over 55%, after Councillors agreed to call a pause to the tender process for its Advice Services Contract.

During a heated Full Council debate last Thursday, 14th November, Councillors eventually voted in favour of a Conservative proposal, which calls upon the Council to go back to the drawing board and produce an Advice Services Strategy, before deciding whether or not to go ahead with such deep budget cuts.

During the meeting, councillors heard impassioned pleas from residents and volunteers at the Citizens Advice Bureau, who called upon the Council to rethink plans to cut its Advice Services budget from £407,000 a year to just £182,000.

The authority's Liberal Democrat Cabinet faced heavy criticism from Conservative councillors for its mishandling of the Council's advice services contract and its failure to produce an Advice Services Strategy.

In scenes witnesses described as 'farcical', Liberal Democrat Councillors ultimately dropped their own motion, which would have committed the Council to pushing ahead with the plans and decided to instead support a Conservative proposal calling a pause to the process. Conservative Shadow Spokesman for Well-being, Cllr Vic Pritchard, moved the Conservative proposal. He said: "The fact that over 4,000 people signed a petition against the Council's cuts to the CAB, demonstrates just how passionate people are about this subject. It's clear just how much people value having a high-profile generalist Advice Service, which they know they can turn to during times of difficulty. If the Liberal Democrats had been allowed to plough on with their previous plans, this service could be lost forever.

"The tender process for the Council's Advice Services Contract has been completely mishandled right from the start and sadly there appears to have been a complete breakdown of relations between B&NES and the CAB. It defies logic that the Council can issue a tender for Advice Services before producing a strategy which details what it wants from the service. Some savings can, of course, be made, but until an Advice Services Strategy is in place, it's impossible to say exactly what the budget should be.

"By pausing the tender process, this will allow the Council to go back to the drawing board, repair relations with the CAB and produce its promised Advice Service Strategy.

"We're pleased the Lib-Dems eventually agreed to support this approach, it's just a shame that we came up with such resistance and witnessed such farcical scenes from the administration before achieving this outcome."

Councillor Paul Crossley (Lib-Dem, Southdown), Leader of Council, said: "There is no doubting the

professionalism and expertise of the service provided by the Citizens Advice Bureau to the community. But the funding they currently receive from the Council is not a handout to underwrite their day-to-day costs – it is to provide a specific contracted service on behalf of the local taxpayer for universal, available to all, advice. We are now at the end of the contract we awarded to CAB in 2008.

"Over those five years, the range of universal advice services for people needing help has grown substantially. The Council's own support has developed, meaning the taxpayer is paying twice for the same service in many cases – once from our own staff and again from the universal advice contract. The Government's financial response to the international financial crisis also means we have to consider the type of services we provide in the future and to whom.

"In light of the petition, the Cabinet will be developing an advice and information strategy that contains a clear commitment to providing services for the most vulnerable people in society, including moving forward with a new Advice Service Contract specifically for this purpose.

"The new contract will reflect both the amount of money we believe appropriate and include help to those in danger of becoming homeless, people at greatest risk of being unable to live independently and elderly residents who may need advice on how to remain in their own home. The strategy will also be clear about what advice is available for people who are not in these categories, including from our own One Stop Shops."