THE patchy support network for York and North Yorkshire families struggling with employment, housing or family law cases is revealed in a new report.

The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) claims the Government's flagship modernisation of the legal aid system - the Community Legal Service (CLS) - is in danger of breakdown in the region.

A report published by the charity says "the region seems to have a problem of particular shortages in specialist areas of law, and access problems to generalist categories in rural areas".

In York, the report lamented that the city had yet to establish a community legal service practitioner, while North Yorkshire was revealed as having "very few specialist solicitors and poor transport connections".

The CAB has drawn up its report from more than 200 local offices across the country on the way the CLS scheme is working, four years after its founding.

It describes legal aid "no go" areas where people facing problems have to travel miles to find someone to take up their case.

In North Yorkshire, 50 per cent of respondents to the CAB had difficulties making referrals in family law cases, while there was a shortage of immigration practitioners in North Yorkshire.

The report gave the example of Selby CAB, which was approached by a man of North African origin seeking leave to remain in the UK.

The bureau did not have a specialist worker and was unable to give advice - CLS solicitors were too busy to take on new cases.

David Harker, chief executive of citizens advice, said: "Our research shows that shortcomings in the CLS are preventing people in desperate need from getting legal advice or taking legal action, even though they are eligible for legal aid.

"The CLS has great potential, but the system is not yet meeting the need for consistent and accessible advice and representation which people should be able to expect.

"Unless these problems are addressed urgently it is hard to see how the CLS can have a viable future."

Updated: 10:00 Saturday, February 07, 2004