NEXT month's merger of Leigh and District Citizens Advice Bureau with Wigan CAB is a shotgun marriage, claims the chairman of Leigh CAB board of trustees.

In response to Wigan Council Leader Peter Smith's comments regarding the situation with Leigh CAB, board chairman David Scattergood said: "The bureau is funded by Wigan Council and the Legal Services Commission. In January the Trustee Board of Leigh bureau was given an ultimatum that the bureau would not receive further funding from either body unless it merged with Wigan CAB.

"The Board made representations to both bodies to keep Leigh bureau independent but was left with no alternative but to agree to the merger.

"During the merger negotiations it became quite clear Wigan Council, the Legal Services Commission and Wigan CAB intended to manipulate the merger so they could divert some of Leigh's resources across the borough.

"The Board felt this was unacceptable."

Mr Scattergood said that after vain appeals to both funding bodies and the submission of alternative plans the trustees decided to close the bureau "rather than be a party to a decline in services to the community of Leigh".

He added: "Make no mistake Leigh and District Citizens Advice Bureau is closing on June 30. It appears Wigan CAB will be providing a service from 6 The Avenue from July 1 but time will tell whether it will be the same quality of service that Leigh currently provides.

"The Council could have stopped this at any point, but the opportunity to improve advice services throughout the borough by using Leigh's resources rather than putting more money forward itself, was obviously too attractive.

"This is another example of bleeding the community of Leigh in order to benefit Wigan."