A FREE legal advice service at Winchester’s Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is set to stop after more than a quarter of a century.

For the past 25 years local solicitors have taken it in turns to provide free legal opinions at the centre, which is now based in St George’s Street.

But the thrice-weekly service stopped on December 31, due to a lack of government funding making it “uneconomical” for solicitors.

The blow comes as enquiries on issues including relationships, debt and benefit, reach an all time high with “dramatic increases” reported this year following the global recession.

Now those requiring legal opinions will be given a list of solicitors at the Winchester CAB, which will give people quotes for any legal help.

Jenny Meadows, CAB manager in Winchester, said: “The loss of this service, which has been extremely valuable to clients who have been unable to afford access to a legal opinion, is very sad.

“When I joined the bureau in 1999 there were nine solicitors practices in the town, now there are only three, with a couple of individual practising solicitors.

“The number of enquiries on legal issues that the bureau has helped clients with has increased substantially over the last few years, mainly due to clients feeling unable to access solicitors, mainly due to the cost.”

She added, however, that people would still be able to get free legal advice from the CAB’s volunteers.

Figures released by Winchester CAB showed the centre dealt with almost 13,000 issues from April 2008 to March 2009.

This included a 26 per cent increase over the previous year, with almost half relating to debt or benefits.