CHELTENHAM'S Citizens Advice Bureau is being stretched to breaking point as the credit crunch pushes more and more people into debt.

Centre manager Andrew Banfield said the bureau, which dealt with more than 7,800 new customers last year, is struggling to train enough advisers to deal with the flood of people seeking advice on their debts.

Although the number of people willing to join the service remains high, Mr Banfield said the amount of training required meant the bureau was struggling to get volunteers on to the front line fast enough.

He said: "It is not the case that we do not have people wanting to become advisers. It is more a problem that the training process can take months and we do not have the capacity to train a lot of people at once.

"With more people struggling with their money because of the economic downturn, we are getting more and more coming through our doors asking for advice.

"The simple fact is we don't have the capacity to deal with everyone who wants our help."

The bureau, which is based in St James' Square, has 35 volunteers.

Staff have to undergo eight months of training before they can start giving advice, although Mr Banfield revealed 15 new recruits had signed up to a reduced course which would allow them to act as "triage" advisers.

Eighteen months ago, Cheltenham Borough Council decided the bureau would be the sole public advice body it would fund for the next three years.

Funding jumped from £139,600 to £155,000 annually, which will remain the same for the next financial year.

But the bureau receives no money from the Government and Mr Banfield said the lack of cash was a major obstacle in trying to help people through the recession.

He said: "We are constantly looking at ways to improve the training process, but we just do not have the resources or funding.

"It is the sort of thing where throwing money at it would undoubtedly help, but we just do not have that money.

"The number of people coming to us with mortgage repayment and other debt problems has inevitably risen with the economic downturn. I'd say it represents about a third of our work at the moment and it is rising."

When the Echo visited the bureau, several people said the credit crunch had forced them to seek advice.

One Cheltenham resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was struggling with thousands of pounds of debt.

He said: "You just get yourself into a hole and don't know how to get back out of it.

"It's scary, but at least there's someone here to talk to. It has been hard to get through to them, especially on the phones, but since I have they've been brilliant."