St Albans District Credit Union is looking to offer services to local residents from the new advice and information centre at the Civic Centre in St Peter’s Street, St Albans.

The move follows the official launch last week of the advice and information centre which offers residents access to a range of local services all in one place.

Advice, guidance and information is currently provided at the centre by Oaklands College, St Albans District Citizens Advice Bureau, St Albans City and District Council and the Volunteer Centre.

Opening the centre officially, Councillor Aislinn Lee, the Mayor of St Albans City and District, said: “A lot of people talk about joint working between organisations, but in St Albans we are actually doing it for the benefit of the whole community.”

Talks are also taking place with a number of other local organisations about joining the scheme as well as St Albans District Credit Union which has expressed interest in providing a service at the centre.

The St Albans District Credit Union is a not-for-profit community organisation run by volunteers and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. It provides savings accounts for deposits of up to £10,000 and affordable loans of up to £5,000 to people living or working in Hertfordshire who become members.

Arthur Chapman at St Albans District Credit Union said: “This is an excellent opportunity to reach even more people in the District and to help them manage their finances during these challenging times. The credit union is for the whole community and not just the financially disadvantaged, however, by providing competitive rates of interests on loans we can help those who have no alternative but to borrow from money lenders at high interest rates. We are also working to help the homeless by providing loans for deposits for accommodation in the private rented sector.”

The advice and information centre has been welcomed by customers, with 86% rating it as “excellent” and 13% as “good”. Since the centre opened on 21 November 2010, the St Albans Citizens Advice Bureau, the Volunteer Centre and Oaklands College have handled a total of 325 transactions, many of which have involved customers taking advice from two or more organisations during their single visit. Vocational courses and skills training enquiries have been the most popular during the initial weeks, with almost a third of visitors to the new centre taking the opportunity to speak to Oaklands College at this new convenient location.