If a CAB is held in a room in the local Town Hall can the council
command them not to give advice about complaints about the council ?
--
TW

"twager" wrote in message
et...


If a CAB is held in a room in the local Town Hall can the council command
them not to give advice about complaints about the council ?
--
TW


Certainly not

On Jul 23, 6:13 pm, twager wrote:
If a CAB is held in a room in the local Town Hall can the council
command them not to give advice about complaints about the council ?
--
TW

Most probably yes since the council can refuse to renew the lease in
due course and the council can put a condition to that effect in the
lease. The only practical remedy would be to try and give the
councillors who supported this the heave-ho at the next election.

peterwn wrote:
On Jul 23, 6:13 pm, twager wrote:
If a CAB is held in a room in the local Town Hall can the council
command them not to give advice about complaints about the council ?
--
TW

Most probably yes since the council can refuse to renew the lease in
due course and the council can put a condition to that effect in the
lease. The only practical remedy would be to try and give the
councillors who supported this the heave-ho at the next election.

Most CABs are funded to a substantial extent by local authorities and
couldn't exist without their assistance. The Bureaux in fact save
authorities a lot of time and money by sorting out complaints and
misunderstandings before they ever reach local officials, so it's in their
interest to fund them and, if necessary, provide facilities.

I cannot believe that any local authority would try to impose conditions on
any CAB as to what problems they can deal with, nor can I believe that any
CAB would accept such conditions. There's a practical problem in that the
advisors never know in advance what problems the public will bring them.
Moreover, since all consultations are totally private and confidential there
is no way the authorities could discover what was discussed anyway.
..

"Norman Wells" wrote in message
...
peterwn wrote:
On Jul 23, 6:13 pm, twager wrote:
If a CAB is held in a room in the local Town Hall can the council
command them not to give advice about complaints about the council ?
--
TW

Most probably yes since the council can refuse to renew the lease in
due course and the council can put a condition to that effect in the
lease. The only practical remedy would be to try and give the
councillors who supported this the heave-ho at the next election.

Most CABs are funded to a substantial extent by local authorities and
couldn't exist without their assistance. The Bureaux in fact save
authorities a lot of time and money by sorting out complaints and
misunderstandings before they ever reach local officials, so it's in their
interest to fund them and, if necessary, provide facilities.

I cannot believe that any local authority would try to impose conditions
on any CAB as to what problems they can deal with, nor can I believe that
any CAB would accept such conditions. There's a practical problem in that
the advisors never know in advance what problems the public will bring
them. Moreover, since all consultations are totally private and
confidential there is no way the authorities could discover what was
discussed anyway.

I have experieince with advice centres (in this case not a CAB), who
recieved the majority of their funding from the council, but spent a large
amount of their efforts agitating against the Council, for 'political
purposes'.

Gaz

In message , Norman Wells
writes
peterwn wrote:
On Jul 23, 6:13 pm, twager wrote:
If a CAB is held in a room in the local Town Hall can the council
command them not to give advice about complaints about the council ?
--
TW

Most probably yes since the council can refuse to renew the lease in
due course and the council can put a condition to that effect in the
lease. The only practical remedy would be to try and give the
councillors who supported this the heave-ho at the next election.

Most CABs are funded to a substantial extent by local authorities and
couldn't exist without their assistance. The Bureaux in fact save
authorities a lot of time and money by sorting out complaints and
misunderstandings before they ever reach local officials, so it's in
their interest to fund them and, if necessary, provide facilities.

I cannot believe that any local authority would try to impose
conditions on any CAB as to what problems they can deal with, nor can I
believe that any CAB would accept such conditions. There's a practical
problem in that the advisors never know in advance what problems the
public will bring them. Moreover, since all consultations are totally
private and confidential there is no way the authorities could discover
what was discussed anyway.
.

It varies enormously around the country.

Some local authorities expressly veto the CAB, or other advice agencies
they fund or support, dealing with such complaints. Fair enough, your
money, your rules, and the organisation can set up referral arrangements
to deal with such cases.

Some expressly approve of such cases being taken on, for the reasons you
cite above in your first paragraph.

And some, the ones I particularly disapprove of, don't say anything
particularly, but then make life really difficult for the organisation
come funding renewal time.

There is a move afoot to switch to "Community Legal Advice Centres".
These would combine all local authority and legal services commission
funding, and put them into a single monopoly advice provider. There is a
real concern that such an approach will mean that conflicts like this
arise and are not dealt with adequately. These have already been set up
in Leicester, Gateshead, Portsmouth and Derby, and Hull is close to
opening. Manchester, Sunderland, Wakefield and Barking & Dagenham are
among the other areas actively considering the possibility.

One guaranteed effect of the CLAC is the death of any CAB or Law Centre
in the area. If they lose the bid to run the CLAC, they lose their
funding. If they win, they have to set up a new single legal entity to
run it according to the terms of the new contract.
--
Richard Miller