By Craig Evry

THE ghost of the former West Wiltshire Citizen's Advice Bureaux was finally laid to rest this week when the former manager agreed to settle an employment dispute.

Margaret Adams, who managed the west Wiltshire branch from Warminster before she went on long-term sick leave more than a year ago, was due to contest the fact that she was forced to leave the Bureau in an industrial tribunal held in Bristol on Monday.

However, the tribunal failed to proceed after Mrs Adams opted for an undisclosed settlement, which involved a large amount of money to be paid by December 18.

In August, when the bureau was axed, management committee member Ultan Ryan said the amalgamation of the Warminster and Trowbridge branches had caused Mrs Adams to become stressed.

He said at the time: "We had to amalgamate and it was then that Margaret Adams was stressed out and from there on, without her at the helm, there was no training being carried out."

Elaine Dawson, a former Trowbridge volunteer, believes it is sad the truth about the CAB management committee never came out, including the fact that they once asked her to write a letter criticising Mrs Adams, despite never having met her.

She said: "I thought it was quite important for Mrs Adams to have her case heard.

"The way it was explained was that she had spent a lot of her life in the CAB and she was now coming to the end of her working life and they were destroying her reputation. They obviously made her an offer she couldn't refuse.

"The CAB has closed and the management committee have gone their merry way and Mrs Adams has got a settlement, but the people who are left are the people in west Wiltshire who have got no service."

The dispute came after a series of shock announcements which saw the service initially being suspended before being closed altogether in September.

Chairman of the management committee Roger Stanbury said that it had been a difficult time for the service and admitted that he would be standing down from his position on the committee.

He said: "I shall not be involved in the new committee. I will have come to the end of my time and a new management committee will be installed. I think I want to have a break, I won't have any regrets."

West Wiltshire District Council community development officer Jacky Nicholas said new members for the management committee were needed.

She said: "It is a case of all the old management committee out and a completely new committee being formed. They all have chosen to close the CAB, this is not a revival it is a completely new service.

"An interim service will be provided over the next year."