TO help celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) there will be a special showing of The Kite Runner at Saffron Screen. The event will be held on Thursday November 26 with an evening reception starting at 7pm and the screen

TO help celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) there will be a special showing of The Kite Runner at Saffron Screen.

The event will be held on Thursday November 26 with an evening reception starting at 7pm and the screening at 7.45pm.

Uttlesford CAB is hosting the screening to celebrate the birth of the organisation in 1939 - the day after Britain declared war on Germany.

A network of 200 CAB offices was planned before the war as an emergency service as it was felt that, in times of conflict, people would need clear, calm advice about all sorts of practical problems.

The war ended, but the need for free, independent help kept growing, particularly as the welfare state began a period of rapid expansion. People wanted to know how to use the NHS and how to apply for things like Legal Aid and Housing Benefit.

As the years passed, the nature of the advice given out by CABs evolved. In the 1950s and 60s housing problems dominated CAB work when restrictions were lifted on rent levels.

Divorce became much more of an issue and the consumer boom of the 1970s was followed by rising unemployment in the 1980s and an increasingly complex benefit system.

Seventy years after the first CAB was opened it seems that many people who get into difficulty still want to sit down with an advisor face-to-face.

Uttlesford CAB is urging as many people as possible to come along to the screening of The Kite Runner and help support the service.

Tickets can be purchased from the CAB in Saffron Walden, Thaxted and Great Dunmow as well as the normal outlets.