A BROMSGROVE advice centre has dealt with more than 12,300 inquiries over the past year.

In its annual report, Bromsgrove Citizens Advice Bureau says its 37 volunteers gave 14,872 hours a year to help staff deal with concerns and problems.

The Birmingham Road centre is open 28 hours a week and operates a walk-in and telephone advice service. It also provides an outreach service at HMP Hewell Grange at Tardebigge.

Between April 2004 and March 2005, the majority of advice to clients concerned benefits followed by consumer issues, debt and housing.

Key developments for 2004 to 2005 was the launch of a housing advice unit, which is staffed by a full-time housing adviser and a part-time housing administrative assistant.

The unit provides a wide range of independent advice on housing-related issues including tenants and landlord rights, homelessness and transfers and house swap schemes.

Another development is four trainee advisers, including two men, who have been recruited to help the bureau achieve its target for a higher ratio of male advisers.

Twelve new computers and software purchased for information technology development were also installed.

For decades advisers had used a paper-based system to research information and answer questions.

But £9,000 was raised and now each of the six interview rooms has a computer to enable advisers to share information with clients during the sessions. The bureau is open Mondays from 9.30am-3.30pm and Tuesdays to Thursdays from 9.30am-3pm.