A CITIZENS advice bureau may have to cut valuable outreach services after failing to get a grant to fund them.

Richmondshire CAB had applied for a grant of £30,000 to fund outreach services in rural villages in the district.

The grant was to come from a £2m county council fund that was set aside for local services from money raised from tax on second homes.

The decision not to award the money has angered Richmond resident Alan Menzies.

He said: "These are vital services, they go from Hawes all the way down to Reeth.

"The people going out are all volunteers and the CAB works with fairly limited resources.

"It's not like in a town where there are limited boundaries, there's a large distance involved.

"The criteria they use to make these assessments about who gets money is ridiculous."

Local councillor Carl Les, who is also the executive member for community services, said the money was awarded through the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP).

He had been unable to attend the meeting at which the grant application was turned down because of ill health.

However, he hoped to see if there was a way in which the outreach services could still be funded.

Coun Les said: "The money that is levied on second homes as council tax is being put back into the community, and we are the only authority that does this. I wasn't at the meeting, so I don't know exactly what was said, but there was a piece of information given which may or may not have been correct.

"I'm going to see if this information would have changed their minds and see if there's anything that can be done to alter the approach that the LSP took.

"The county council's position is that we value the work of the CAB in rural areas, and particularly the outreach services."

Angie House, the Richmondshire CAB manager, said: "I can't actually comment at the moment as the information on the funding is not entirely confirmed."