WHITEHILL and Bordon Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) has received a council grant, but not for its endangered home visiting service. East Hampshire District Council's Community Forum decided to give the CAB £2,000 towards an electronic server, allowing staff to access information from any of its computers. In its application form, discussed at a meeting of the forum in Grayshott on Tuesday night, the CAB said this system was "vitally important to the working of our bureau" as it allows 25 volunteers, working different shifts, equal access to information. But this will not help the CAB maintain its home-visiting service, helping more than 100 people in the area claim benefit money, once funding dries up at the end of March 2007. The cost of buying and installing the server, along with a new computer and monitors, is estimated to be almost £4,700. The server will eventually support software called CASE, allowing staff to record client details in a more accessible electronic format. Almost £3,000 has already been spent by the CAB installing the necessary cables. In return, the application says, the local community will receive a "quicker, professional advice service which will improve their lives through advice given or benefits or monies obtained". Diana Wilson, manager of Whitehill and Bordon CAB, said the grant was "absolutely superb" and hoped the server would be up and running in a few weeks. Annual enquiry numbers at the CAB have risen from 7,778 in 2001/02 to 10,255 in 2005/06.
