Charity to leave city centre base after 30 years

A charity which supports people with a variety of financial, housing and employment issues is preparing to leave its city centre base of more than 30 years.

Bosses at Citizens Advice Staffordshire North and Stoke-on-Trent said they were closing their office in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, as well as two others nearby.

Staff will move to new premises near Central Forest Park in the city later this year.

In the meantime, they said drop-in services would continue to be held at Advice House on Cheapside in the city centre until September.

The charity's chief executive, Craig Browne, said it would move out of Advice House, as well as Canal Arm at Festival Park and Brindley Court at Newcastle-under-Lyme, over the coming months.

"The purpose of the move is to bring us together as one organisation and, in so doing, provide a one-stop-shop for clients, with all our advice services accessible from a single location," he said.

He added that the charity's new offices at Mitchell House, on Town Road, would offer a number of benefits for clients and staff, including an increase in on-site parking space and being close to a regular bus route.

An estate agent's listing for Advice House said the building comprised almost 8,000 sq ft (743 sq m) of office space over three floors.

"Internally there are a range of private and open-plan offices, the arrangement of which could easily be adjusted to accommodate alternative layouts by the removal of non-structural stud partitioning," the listing states.

"To the side of the property are four on-site car parking spaces, and a number of public car parks are within a five-minute walk."

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