Good Advice

Was delighted this week to be asked to officially open the Council's new Advice Shop which has been re sited from the South Bridge to a refurbished suite of offices on the ground floor of the City Chambers. Entering from the High Street a modern and professional reception area is supplemented by numerous interview rooms of various sizes and an extensive back office area where advice workers can access a wealth of information for customers. It's an impressive set up and I'm pleased for the staff who had to continue to deliver a very important service while dealing with the upheaval of an office move. They're already really busy with the workload set to increase over the months ahead due to the ongoing problems caused by the ConDem Welfare Reform changes. We recently agreed to put more than £200k additional funding into advice services across the city including the Advice Shop. Whether or not that will be enough to meet the demand remains to be seen. At least staff and customers have state of the art accommodation in which to hold their important sessions. I just hope the plaque at the front door bearing my name doesn't put anyone off coming in !