Tel: 0845 092 0137

Chiltern

Emergency hours

If you need help out of hours please look at the Emergency hours page

Free loft and cavity wall insulation.

Chiltern District Council and the district Councils of Buckinghamshire support Cocoon, a loft and cavity wall insulation scheme run by United Sustainable Energy Agency, a not-for-profit organisation. Cocoon is now able to offer free cavity wall and loft insulation (where existing loft insulation is less than 60mm (2.5inches)) to all homeowners and private tenants, regardless of their age or income levels.     The offer is subject to a free, no obligation survey.  Charges may apply if the property is larger than average or requires extras such as scaffolding or vents. This is a time limited offer, on a first come first served basis. For more information about the scheme or to arrange a survey, householders can call Cocoon on 0800 80 48 777 or visit their website at www.cocoonyourhome.co.uk. (May 2012)                                                                               

Social policy articles

We regularly publish articles covering new and relevant topics to the Chilterns area. Below are the latest topics that are key and relevant to the Chilterns.

•  Mobile phone skulduggery - SCAM                                                                                                                                                                                          January 2012
Christmas one year ago a 20 year old local nurse received a cold call on her mobile to say she was eligible for a free upgrade.  It turned out the call was not from T2 mobile, her service provider, but from an agent of Orange who had sent her a very expensive blackberry phone. The client sent it back at once but this was ignored and she had an alleged debt of more than £1100.  This was only written off by Orange after Chiltern CAB campaigned to have the case scrutinised by an independent arbitration service.  You can report scams via the www.direct.gov.uk site. Or call the Chiltern CAB


• Skipton Building Society - Pension payments go astray                                                                                                     January 2012
Skipton Building Society merged with the old, local, Chesham BS in summer 2010 and problems arose almost immediately with delays in payments of pensions and other government benefits into old Chesham BS accounts.  Chesham BS had always used HSBC for bank cash transfers, whereas Skipton BS use Barclays, so the old Chesham BS customers had to change their pay-in details to ensure money reached the correct account.  CAB staff made visits to the local Skipton BS office, exchanged letters with the local manager and situation improved.  
Unfortunately the same problems started up again in June 2011 and persisted over the next 5 months.  Some clients experienced up to 3 month delays with pension payments.

Chiltern CAB made a formal complaint to Skipton BS Head Office in Oct 2011 with a statement of intent to refer the case to the  FSA if explanations and apologies were not forthcoming. We also had useful correspondence with local MP, Cheryl Gillan.  

It emerged that the Skipton BS automated systems, used successfully in managing previous take-overs to change bank details had not been totally effective and will have to be modified.  Also, in some cases auto-correction of bank details for pension payments from  DWP led to vital individual BS reference numbers being deleted and further delay.  Skipton BS wrote a letter of thanks to Chiltern CAB for “help and support in this matter”. and also wrote a personal letter of apology to every client we identified to them. We shall continue to be vigilant in this area but for the time being the problems have been eradicated and should be less frequent in future.    

• Social Policy Campaign across Bucks                                                                                                                                                                     January 2012
Chiltern CAB has recently initiated a county wide collection of data about local authority/government cuts in funds and services and their impact on clients. We are liaising with our counterparts in Aylesbury, Wycombe and Buckingham CAB. Chiltern CAB will collate the data and compare our own county situation with other regions.  Watch this space!

Chesham Food bank CHESHAM FOOD BANK  is based St Mary’s Church Annexe, Church Street, Chesham, Bucks HP5 1HY  Please drop in to Chesham CAB if you are in crisis and you think a food parcel would help.  We can provide a food voucher, which can be exchanged for three days of non-perishable food. People need help for different reasons, including redundancy, illness, benefit delay, domestic violence, debt. All food given out is donated by the local community and sorted by volunteers. See more on their facebook page.     Email: foodbankchesham@gmail.com        Website http://chiltern.foodbank.org.uk/                                                                                                                                                                                                           January 2012

Hot topics