THE Citizens Advice centre in Petersfield is moving to the High Street, re-branding and modernising.
After being housed in The Old Surgery, in the Festival hall car park since 1992, it is moving to a more central location in the town.
It is managed by Citizens Advice East Hampshire, whose chief executive officer (CEO) Jon Stuart is overseeing the move and modernisation.
Mr Stuart said: “We are moving to a prominent and more accessible location in the very centre of Petersfield.
“An agreement to rent the space has been reached, but as the paperwork hasn’t been formally signed I can’t say exactly where it is.
“But the Waterlooville branch has moved into the library there, and the branch in Petersfield will be in a similar high profile location.
“I can say we have the money for the new premises, and the move will go ahead in the next three months.”
The shift from the Old Surgery has been driven by an extensive study into how the East Hampshire service should move forward.
This includes shortening its name from Citizens Advice Bureau to just Citizens Advice; when the move goes ahead this may be further shortened to Advice Centre.
Mr Stuart joined the volunteer charity as CEO in 2014, and began to modernise it, increasing the topics it’s highly trained staff can now advise on.
And despite the ongoing modernisation, he says it will still offer advice about historic issues such as money management, employment, housing, and relationships.
He said: “We carried out an extensive study which told us that the existing CAB model was out of date. We need to be more engaging and available to people.”
The new centre has been designed to be open to the walk in public, and will combine a drop in centre as well as private rooms for more confidential conversations.
In the public space there will be lap top work stations to help those needing advice while filling in official forms, be they regarding debt of claiming benefit.
There will also be a café area, and space where clients can have informal chats in friendly surroundings.
For details about the service and the issues it deals with, visit www.citizensadviceeasthampshire.org.uk