Sir, In the run-up to local elections in 2009, a leaflet on ‘How Conservative Councils are helping in the recession’ boasted of Tory councils’ local ‘partnerships’ with Citizens Advice Bureaux up and down the country.

Party leader David Cameron was full of praise. ‘CAB is a complete lifeline during a recession, one of the most essential services there is,’ he told an audience in Taunton last year. He urged councils to fund Citizens Advice Bureaux adequately because the need for them during a recession is so great.

Yet Didcot CAB, despite serving 20 per cent more clients since the start of the recession, has seen its grant from the town’s Tory council cut by two-thirds. Now, notwithstanding plans for a bigger civic hall, to be paid for with local money, Didcot council has evicted it (‘No room for CAB in new Civic Hall’, Herald, March 3).

Like town councillors themselves, the vast majority of those who work for Didcot CAB are volunteers. Yet Didcot council has slammed the door on them and their clients, apparently oblivious to a Conservative green paper that emphasises support for local voluntary groups and volunteers — what it calls ‘the beating heart of Britain’s civil society.’ Didcot council should get its priorities straight. It needs to send its civic hall plans back to the drawing board and make adequate room for the CAB. This is no time for pay-more, get-less politics.

Sara Davidson Manor Road Didcot