Three job advice centres for the unemployed that were threatened with closure have been given a reprieve.

The Information and Advice Centre in Southmead, known as Scart, and two others in Filton and Lawrence Weston, had been due to shut their doors on Friday, March 27, after Government funding ran out.

But after complaints from residents and a petition, the planned closures will not now go ahead.

Bristol City Council says it has found funding to keep all three open for now but there is still a question over where the money will come from to run them in the long term.

The centres help hundreds of people find work, get on training courses and manage their finances.

In the current economic climate staff say they have been busier than ever.

The centres also host a number of other organisations, including the Citizens Advice Bureau, Bristol Credit Union, teenage advice service Connexions and a police surgery.

The centres were previously funded by the Government through the Neighbourhood Renewal regeneration programme for deprived communities.

This funding ended in March last year, but the Government's Neighbourhood Renewal Transition Funding gave projects a lifeline for a year while they sought alternative arrangements.

The Southmead Development Trust oversees all three shops. Operations manager Julie Doughty declined to comment yesterday.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats are both claiming credit for the shops' reprieve – and blaming each other for the threatened closures.

Lib Dem leader Barbara Janke said: "I was astonished to learn the Labour administration were informed that funding was to have run out two years ago, yet they have done nothing in all this time.

"It beggars belief that three weeks after resigning they are now complaining these centres will close for lack of funding. People in these areas do not have the services available in many parts of the city, and are suffering even more as a result of the recession."

Councillor Janke said the funding came from a number of sources but that long term funding needed to be reviewed.

Councillor Peter Hammond (Labour, Southmead) said: "In February the Labour Government gave Bristol an extra £1 million to help those hit by the recession and Labour had planned to use these funds to support such projects.

"But it took local people, along with their councillors, to challenge the new Liberal Democrat administration to fund these vital services.

"As usual it's a last-minute panic decision from indifferent ditherers and they had to be shamed into it."

Mrs Janke said that, subject to the appropriate vetting procedure, council funds would be provided to a community organisation to keep the Scart centre open for 12 months.

She said the council had also agreed to provide funding to the Southmead Development Trust to keep the other two centres open for a further three months.