THE Citizens' Advice Bureau in Weymouth and Portland is to lodge a £1 million lottery bid for a new building amid spiralling debt problems in the town.

The rising number of inquiries from people with money trouble has increased the pressure on the charity at its offices in Great George Street.

Now the bureau has applied for £1 million in lottery money to renovate an abandoned warehouse at Custom House Quay to share with other charities.

The number of debt cases it deals with rose by 32 per cent in the last year and now accounts for a quarter of all enquiries.

Bureau deputy manager Helen Jones said the cases were often complex and took longer for the bureau to deal with than other queries.

She said: "In terms of the time spent on them it's probably taking up about 40 per cent of our time.

"If a debtor has 12 creditors then that is 12 calls we have to make, whereas if someone comes in with a broken kettle it is easier to deal with.

"It is not just a problem for the advisers, it takes admin staff longer to deal with and takes us away from other cases."

The bureau has also seen a massive rise in mortgage repossession cases.

Mrs Jones added: "Bankruptcy seems to be the only viable option for a lot of people.

"There's no way that people are going be able to pay that back in their working lifetimes."

The charity now hopes it can get enough funds to convert a warehouse into new offices.

Mrs Jones said: "We have only got three interview rooms. What tends to happen is that we open the doors and we've got six people waiting there already.

"So our rooms get filled up and we've then got a queue of people waiting."

The charity is not moving solely because of the extra pressure of debt inquiries. Bureau manager Bob Bullin said the extra space the warehouse would provide was needed anyway.

He said: "We will be sharing the offices with other charities but we will take up most of the middle floor. The £1 million is needed for refurbishment, it will need all sorts of structural work."

The bureau is also looking for more volunteers. Mr Bullin said: "Our volunteer base is getting older. Our advisers have a wealth of valuable expertise, but we want some younger volunteers so when people do need to retire we have someone to replace them."

Anyone interested in volunteering should contact Mr Bullin on 01305 782798 or go in person to 2 Mulberry Terrace.