The Citizens Advice Mendip's services are available for much longer hours now they have opened a kiosk in the Portway Annexe.

There, you can use a freephone or go online to email questions or arrange appointments.

"We moved to remote working from home following the pandemic, delivering most of our services by email or phone," said Ian Byworth, chief executive of Mendip CA. We had surveyed our clients and found that most preferred to contact us that way."

This allowed greater anonymity, more flexibility with time and better accessibility.

Previously, the CA opened only on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings in the Town Hall. Now they are available Monday-Friday from 10am-4pm at the Portway Annexe kiosk.

But the CA still offers face-to-face meetings if requested.

"This is the first information kiosk we have set up and we want to set up more such kiosks across Mendip. We are looking at the possibility of having them in doctors' surgeries. May I also say that Wells City Council has always been very supportive, not just financially?"

Mendip CA is a charity funded by a mixture of local authority grants (including £5,000 a year from the city council), contract income, fundraising and donations.

In Wells they helped 163 people between April-September in 2021 and 211 in the same period this year.