STAFF and volunteers at the Winchester District Citizens Advice Bureau paid tribute chief executive Jenny Meadows, who retired last week.

Andrew Beadle, chairman of the CAB, said: “Jenny has done a first class job managing the CAB in Winchester for the last 15 years. Her strong leadership of our excellent team of staff and volunteers has enabled many thousands of people in this district to be helped with their problems.”

Her CAB career started in 1988 when she moved to Bishop’s Waltham with a young family.

She was one of the first 10 volunteer advisers recruited by Winchester CAB for the new outreach in Bishop’s Waltham and in 1991 took the paid deputy manager role at the Winchester bureau.

In 1995 she left to become joint deputy chief officer at the council of voluntary service in Winchester, which became the Winchester Area for Community Action.

She rejoined Winchester CAB in June 1999 as bureau manager and was appointed chief executive in February 2012.

She successfully steered Winchester CAB through the merger with Bishop’s Waltham CAB, the introduction of new technology and the Citizens Advice membership audit.

She said she is particularly proud of “our training within bureau, of our high quality money advice supporting clients with their debt and their benefit issues and our record of staff retention.”

Others highlights include the bureau achieving a £12,000 payout at an employment tribunal for a race discrimination case.

The most recent lowlight was having to deal with no phones or internet when our lines were under four feet of water in the local telephone exchange during the floods in February 2014, said Jenny, praising staff who rallied to keep everything open.

Winchester District CAB is one of the oldest continuously open charities in the city and on her retirement she thanked the city council for its support over the 70 years the bureau has been in Winchester.