The future of Didcot and District Citizens Advice Bureau remains uncertain - largely because of funding.

To help assure its survival, the centre - which serves Didcot, Wallingford and an outreach centre at RAF Benson - is to employ a fundraiser, following a grant of £5,000 from South Oxfordshire District Council.

The centre's accounts reveal that it cost just over £67,000 to run the Didcot and District CAB during 2003-4 and by the end of the year, it had been necessary to draw upon its reserves by £500.

In her annual report, the chairman Eleanor Hards described 2003-4 as a year of uncertainty.

April last year saw the start of discussions over the long-term future of the CAB service in south Oxfordshire which are still continuing.

Mrs Hards said South Oxfordshire District Council had provided some additional funding, but at the end of the financial year they had expected to have to curtail opening hours.

A £4,000 donation from the RAF Benevolent Fund helped the CAB to maintain the service for the time being.

But that kind of help could not be relied upon year-on-year, and Mrs Hards said the situation was still precarious. "Fundraising is therefore a priority and SODC made a one-off grant to enable the bureau to employ a part-time fundraiser," she said. Mrs Hards emphasised that while the CAB received grants from local councils, it was totally independent of Government and local authorities.

Another cause for concern was the poor state of the CAB's Wallingford premises at the town's Bullcroft.

Mrs Hards pointed out that the projected move to a refurbished Regal Centre had been delayed because the long-term future of the centre was still under consideration.

"We are very hopeful that this project will go ahead as it will enable us top put in the same quality of IT equipment that we have at Didcot," she said.

During 2003-4, the CAB dealt with 9,877 inquiries from 5,470 clients - including 2,761 from Didcot and 827 from Wallingford.

Behind-the-scenes, manager Janice Haynes said there had been major changes including the introduction of a new national computerised recording and storage system for clients' records.