This year Coventry Citizens Advice Bureau celebrates its 70th Anniversary with all other bureaux in England and Wales. Here's a quick overview of the history of the Coventry Bureau since it opened in 1940. To view the full story, download our 2009/10 Annual Report here.

The 40's
Coventry CAB, along with the Citizens Advice network was established at the start of the Second World War as a wartime emergency service. Over the years, the bureau has changed and developed in line with the needs of the people of Coventry. The following outlines the history of the bureau since it was opened in 1940 from the Old Palace Yard, Jordan Well...

The 50's
The 1950s was a decade of re-invention for the bureau. Set up as a temporary service to deal with the war-related issues, the bureau adapted to address the renewed post-war needs of the people of Coventry, and to establish itself fully as a key service in the City...




The 60's
Unfortunately the swinging 60’s started on a forbidding note for the Bureau: “Advice Bureau Finances Desperate”, was a headline in the CET on the 27 April 1960. At the AGM the previous evening the newly elected chair suggested that the people of Coventry were taking the Bureau for granted after 20 years of good work. Perhaps, in keeping with the questioning mood of the time, the Full-time Secretary of the Bureau, Mrs. V. Bonnehomme, stated, “In this glorious new city, old fashioned things such as the Bureau are out of date. It must be reorganised on an entirely new basis...


The 70's
It wasn’t just precarious finances that threatened Coventry CAB as the seventies began. After the 1969 closure, the CAB reopened in April 1970 thanks to additional Council funding and a core of dedicated staff and volunteers, but its premises at 45 Warwick Road were immediately threatened by “Stage 6” of the inner ring road, then nearing completion...




The 80's
Concerns about the government’s plans for Consumer Advice Centres were well founded. By 1979, they were gone and their responsibilities transferred directly to National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux...



The 90's
The Bureau trimmed services to meet the financial realities of its situation in the 90s. Opening hours reduced by a third. Outreach at Foleshill and Willenhall ended, but new services started in Hillfields, Stoke Heath and Radford. Some new services, like a telephone debtline, and advisers in GP surgeries, were trialled. Yet another Council review of advices services began...





The 2000's
In April 2000, as the demolition of Fleet House approached, the long anticipated move finally took place, and the Bureau relocated to Coventry Point. It wasn’t long before the problems with the new premises emerged. 2000 also saw the end of outreach services except for the GP surgery service; financial stringency, coupled to the ongoing uncertainty of short-term funding, made the services unsustainable. Outreach would not begin again in Hillfields until 2004...