Press Releases pre-May 2010

The partners of the Community Legal Advice Service project – the Legal Services Commission, West Sussex County Council and the seven district and borough councils in West Sussex – today announced that a consortium of the West Sussex Citizens Advice Bureaux, working with Shelter, has won the contract to run a county-wide legal service. 

The service is scheduled to open on 1 April 2010 and will have over £7.25 million1 invested into it over a three-year period.   

The consortium will deliver a full range of legal help, from general legal advice to court representation, for people facing problems relating to community care, debt, employment, housing and welfare benefits.  It will also be able to help people resolve family and relationship breakdown legal issues.

People from across the county will be able to use this service by visiting one of twelve centres at:

• Lancing   
• Shoreham 
• Littlehampton 
• Chichester   
• Crawley  (two sites)
• Horsham
• Burgess Hill 
• Bognor Regis 
• East Grinstead 
• Haywards Heath
• Worthing  
   

The service will also provide outreach services for those living in the more remote parts of the county.

County Council Cabinet Member for Adults’ Services, Peter Catchpole, said: “We believe this enhanced service will be a major improvement and help many more people get legal advice and assistance on debt, housing and employment issues and benefits advice.

“The service will place a strong emphasis on the vital role of valued volunteer advice workers and is good timing, as an important part of this work is to help our communities cope with the recession.”

John Sirodcar, the Legal Services Commission’s National Relationship Director, added: “When local organisations work together to provide the range of services needed, people are able to resolve a number of problems more quickly and effectively. 

"Similar services elsewhere in the country are proving extremely popular and are already helping record numbers of people, especially when so many are being hit by money and related problems.”