Skipton Citizens' Advice Bureau has hit the jackpot again with a £318,147 lottery grant to be spent on employment rights advice.

The application was made on behalf of a consortium of CABs in North Yorkshire and the City of York office.

The grant will enable all the bureaux to employ a specialist worker to be trained and give employment rights advice, which is complicated and constantly changing.

The Skipton office has employed Erica Cadbury to do the job for the past three years so the money for this office will be spent on training and buying in specialist help should the need arise.

Bureau manager Sylvia Valentine said that when the five new specialist workers were employed and trained people would even be able to ask them to advocate for them during a tribunal if necessary.

Mrs Valentine said that there was definitely a need for this kind of service. "The field of employment rights is complex and confusing," she explained.

She added that the consortium bid was an exciting move for the Skipton office, which will act as banker of the grant.

"It is a great example of how individual bureaus, although each one a separate entity in its own right, can work together for the benefit of the residents of the whole of North Yorkshire and the City of York," she said.

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