PROBLEMS with marriage breakdowns, debt, homelessness and redundancy in the area are spiralling, counsellors in Dorchester are warning.

Volunteers from the town's Citizens' Advice Bureau are painting a bleak picture of life in the county town and the surrounding rural areas, saying that in the past year they have helped a quarter of the population in West Dorset.

Leading volunteer Peter Mann said: "The chocolate box image of rural Dorset is very far from the real picture. The scale of the problem is enormous."

In the last year the three bureaux in West Dorset have given advice on 34,000 problems, with a high percentage due to relationship breakdowns and debt.

The trained advisors have helped 18,577 people from their three offices in Dorchester, Bridport and Sherborne and the managers in each bureau are reporting a rising number of serious caseload problems.

Now volunteers and supporters are forming a charitable trust to try to respond to the growing demands of the bureaux - and they have already signed up a number of leading names to become its patrons, including West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin, the Bishop of Sherborne and Lady Caroline Sandwich.

The new trust will be called the Friends of West Dorset Citizens' Advice Bureaux and will campaign for vital funds to help recruit extra volunteers and extend opening hours to cope with the enormous caseload.

Mr Mann, of Arbutus Close in Dorchester, chairman of the new trust, said: "More and more people are turning to the West Dorset bureaux for help.

"This new trust will be vital in helping to meet the needs of an increasingly pressurised society.

"Rural isolation is a big problem in this area and is often compounded by poverty.

"But people often do not realise the scale or the nature of the problems faced by thousands of local people because this looks like a very affluent area." The problems advisors tackle can be wide-ranging.

A typical example is 74-year-old George Heathfield, who went to the Dorchester bureaux for help after his wife left him, leaving him to care for her young son.

Mr Heathfield, who is registered blind, was at his wits' end after trying to get a divorce through solicitors and being quoted thousands of pounds that he could not afford on his pension.

The advisor was able to guide him as he arranged his own divorce through the courts and find out the legal situation he was in regarding his stepson's care.

The advisor also helped him fill out forms and wrote to social services on his behalf.

He said: "I couldn't have done it without the CAB's help. I am extremely grateful for the service I got and the support during that period."

Anyone who would like to help the trust or become a CAB advisor should contact one of the West Dorset bureaux - Dorchester on (01305) 262220, Bridport on (01308) 456594, or Sherborne on (01935) 815681.