OVER estate residents will have a hi-tech system of getting useful advice thanks to a new pilot scheme.

Vale Royal Citizens' Advice Bureau, which runs a service from the Neighbourhood Centre in Cheviot Square, has agreed to take part in a unique pilot exercise to offer advice by the medium of electronic mail.

The Neighbourhood Centre already provides learning opportunities for residents who want to improve their computer skills, including getting access to the Internet and this made the idea particularly attractive to the CAB.

Jason Bishop, service manager for the Vale Royal CAB said: "They have computers already at the Neighbourhood Centre with access to the internet and with people already using e-mail and the internet it is one of the reasons this estate was chosen because it already has the infrastructure."

It works by people popping into the centre and asking the cybercafe co-ordinators about getting advice by e-mail.

They will then be given an e-mail account with a password, so the correspondence is confidential, and they can look at a booklet describing the sort of information the CAB needs the e-mail to include.

The advantages of the scheme are that people who need advice will not need to wait any longer, better anonymity for those seeking advice and improved efficiency for the CAB.

Mr Bishop added: "The CAB is always looking for innovative ways to offer our service to clients.

"We recognise that some people have difficulty coming into the bureau and this offers an alternative way of seeking advice."

The scheme will run until August and the CAB will seek funding to introduce the service to the rest of the borough depending on its success."

Jpowell@guardiangrp.co.uk