A £5,000 grant from the Lloyds TSB Foundation has enabled South Kesteven CAB to launch a new service providing expert advice which is e-mailed to residents in Stamford, Deepings and Bourne.

It is hoped the move will ease the services' heavily oversubscribed telephone line and make life easier for people who find it physically difficult to get to its Stamford base or its outreach sessions.

The system has been trialled for the past fortnight where highly trained advisors have been sending specific replies back to clients' enquiries.

District manager Margaret Ogden said: "We are delighted to be able to offer this new service to the community.

"Working over such a large district, means many people find it difficult to get to the bureau and our telephone advice line, 0844 994199, is heavily oversubscribed.

"We have purchased a special package to ensure client confidentiality, and all answers will be specific to the client and not just general advice.

"This is an exciting new venture and we hope it will help many more people in our area."

The cash from the Lloyds TSB Foundation paid for two computers to be purchased – one for the Stamford office and one for the Grantham branch.

Specialist advisors from either office will aim to answer residents' queries, depending on their area of expertise, within a five-day target.

Currently the biggest area for which the service issues advice for is for debt problems, which amounts to about 30 per cent of the enquiries it deals with.

Mrs Ogden added: "When you consider all the dozens of different categories of enquiries we deal with, to have a single one which amounts to 30 per cent of them is a lot."

She said she estimated the amount of debt problems the CAB is currently dealing with in the district amounts to around £3 million.

The e-mail service can be reached through South Kesteven CAB's new website www.southkestevencab.co.uk

Visit the Citizens Advice Bureau website.