About Us

About Citizens Advice Hartlepool

First Citizens Advice office in Hartlepool

Old office in Victoria Road

Current office in Park Road

An earlier logo of the Citizens Advice Bureau, giving the image of a wise old owl at work!

Old logo adopted in 2002

New logo adopted in 2015 - dropping the word bureau

The Hartlepool Citizens Advice Bureau has been in existence for over 70 years now. From a rather humble beginning in a one-room office in the 1940's, the Bureau moved to larger offices on Victoria Road in the mid 1980's. In 1998, the Bureau was fortunate in obtaining a grant of £498,000 from the National Lottery Charities Board to build new offices on Park Road. These new offices were opened by the then MP for Hartlepool, Mr Peter Mandelson in July 2000.

Helping to solve problems since 1939

1935: the government is considering the need for an information service linked to the fledgling social welfare service.

1938: When the prospect of a world war loomed, the National Council of Social Services (the forerunner of today's National Council of Voluntary Organisations) established a group to look at how to meet the needs of the civilian population in war-time. "Citizens Advice Bureaux should be established throughout the country, particularly in the large cities and industrial areas where social disorganisation may be acute."

3 September 1939: War declared.

4 September 1939: The first 200 bureaux open

From the start, volunteers, who worked from public buildings and private houses, ran the service. Advisers dealt with problems relating to the loss of ration books, homelessness and evacuation. They also helped locate missing relatives and prisoners of war. Debt quickly became a key issue as income had reduced due to call-ups.

1942: 1,074 bureaux have opened, entirely run by volunteers including converted horse boxes parked near bombed areas.

1965: the national total for enquiries reached 1.25 million.

1970s: Consumer protection became a priority during the 1970s.

1973: A development grant from the Government is given to national charity, the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB) to extend the network.
1980s: Two recessions increase poverty and enquiries rise.

1990s: Increased enquiries result from changes to the benefit system and work practices.

1999: www.adviceguide.org.uk is launched, allowing people to access advice on line 24 hours a day The service celebrated its Diamond Jubilee and launched the first annual Advice Week which now takes place every September.

2000s: Debt, housing and employment continue to be key issues that bureaux deal with, particularly in relation to asylum issues.

2002: Bureaux in Wales adopt a new logo – Cyngor ar Bopeth which translates as 'advice on everything'. The service receives a £20 million grant from the Government's Capital Modernisation Fund to provide IT infrastructure to roll out e-government services to CAB clients.

2003 Adviceguide website is made available in English, Welsh, Bengali, Chinese, Gujarati Punjabi and Urdu and visits continue to increase - extending access to CAB advice to those who cannot use bureaux.

2003: The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux changes its name to Citizens Advice and in Wales, to Citizens Advice Cymru (Cyngor ar Bopeth Cymru).

2003: Citizens Advice Bureaux become the first in the advice sector to audit the quality of their advice.

2003: An independently commissioned review of the service by the Office for Public Management concluded that "the CAB service provides excellent value in return for the public funding it receives. It makes a significant contribution to individuals and communities, as well as to the process of policy-making and service delivery. Its holistic approach, national coverage and independence are to be cherished".

May 2004: After a ten year campaign using evidence from CAB clients, the Government added an amendment to the Housing Bill to include a tenancy deposit scheme.

September 2004: Citizens Advice service celebrates its 65th anniversary.

2007/08: there were 426 member Citizens Advice Bureaux across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Each one is an independent registered charity helping people to resolve their legal money and other problems by providing free advice and influencing policy makers. The network still relies on over 20,000 trained volunteers to keep the service running and provides free advice from 3,200 locations, (in bureaux and and at community outreach venues) as well as by phone, in people's homes and on the internet. Visits to www.adviceguide.org.uk , our public advice website rose to 7.3 million in 2007/08.