CAB always engaged

[Clevercat]

I refer to the Trowbridge centre.  My friend has tried to no avail to contact these people for advice re an unpaid fine.

Complicated story but he is going to Court tomorrow, even though the DD and TV liscence was in his wifes name.  One day they called at the marital home and said a DD had failed, so he put iti in his name to pay from then.

He since left marital home and was not forwarded any letters.

Now he is being held responsible for the unpaid DD, and is facing court action.

I think I have all details correct, he has tried getting advice to no avail.   Court tomorrow and he is very worried.

[Yokel]

ring them up and complain 

[Clevercat]

They tried ringing the actual tv liscense people but they were uninterested on phone.

[Monica Reyes]

Trow CAB seems pushed to the limit, we went their a couple of years ago,l got there about 10 am , and it was heaving, and we sat there all day and were seen at about 3.30pm, not once did anyone come out and say 'sorry' to us all sitting there. I had to wait as the advice we needed was urgent.

They did help us in the end with some advice, but the actual wait was beyond ridiculous. ever sat in a chair for 5 hours?:|lol oh and we had two of the children with us as well, so extra fun,NOT!

I hope your friend gets some advice.

[hermes2007]

Funnily enough I was in a meeting with the head of Wiltshire CAB a few weeks ago. Very nice lady but she said they were simply over-whelmed with enquiries at the moment. They were training new volunteers but it took them time to get up to speed.

A better bet might be the drop in centres at Warminster and Melksham though they do get very busy. Perhaps too late now but in his case I would have gone to a Solicitor at least on the free half hour.

Never used them CC but these people might help and have an advice line:
http://www.clsdirect.org.uk/
"This website offers free, confidential and independent legal advice for residents of England and Wales."
0845 345 4 345

http://cabwiltshire.org.uk/Wiltshire-Citizens-Advice-Bureaux.html

[Clevercat]

Case thrown out of court, as long as said friend could swear on oath that the debt was not his and he was unaware of proceedings against him, which he could and did.

What a lot of wasted time, money and nerves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Yokel]

For anything less than say a hundred quid you have to cost your time on getting it back.  If you cost your time and effort and stress at £15 an hour, if its going to take more than a mornings work to get it back it simply isnt worth it.

[hermes2007]

Just been sent this:
Partners and organisations from the Wiltshire Assembly have formed a group – Action for Wiltshire – which has agreed to allocate £340,000 to deliver three new schemes to tackle the effects of the economic downturn across the county.

The schemes will be funded using money Wiltshire Council has earned through a performance reward grant from the Government. The grant is being paid to the council over the next two years as a result of meeting service delivery targets previously agreed with the Government.

£290,000 will be given to Wiltshire’s Citizen Advice Bureaus to help them deal with the increase in demand they have seen over the last year. The money will mainly be spent on improving the telephone advice service and will help pay for more advisors and the equipment and training for them to help efficiently with people’s problems.
http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/focuson.htm?aid=83189

The balance of the monies is going to SME support.