A FUNDING crisis and tail-off of support is forcing the closure of a town's one-stop advice centre.

The Billingham Forward information and advice shop will close at the end of this month.

The town centre base was originally launched in April 2002 as a partnership between a number organisations - Stockton Voluntary Development Agency, Action Team for Jobs, Stockton Learning Shop, Stockton Residents and Community Groups Association, Stockton Adult Education Service, Bede College, Stockton Riverside College and Stockton's Learning Towns.

A year later, The Billingham Partnership (TBP) and Connexions Tees Valley also operated from the base.

But use of Billingham Forward has declined over the past couple of years, due to changes in partner organisations' remits or funding conditions, and TBP is now the only organisation with full-time workers on the premises.

The result has been that the shop has had insufficient staff numbers to offer a reliable 9am to 5pm service for several months.

Its steering group has reluctantly come to the conclusion that the shop is no longer viable and should close.

The shop will only be used for specific meetings and booked appointments, over its last few weeks of operation.

There will be no drop-in services offered.

Speaking on behalf of the steering group, Brenda Turnbull, chairwoman of the Billingham Forward partnership, said: "We very much regret that we have not been able to find the funding to keep Billingham Forward open as a central base for all partner organisations and their clients.''