THE leader of a Blackburn-based charity which helps recovering drug addicts has blasted a cut in funding for its treatment services.

Father Jim McCartney, founder and chief executive of THOMAS - Those on the Margins of Society - spoke out after £26,000 funding for work with offenders in Preston and Lancaster Prisons was axed.

Now he has called for an urgent meeting with Blackburn MP Jack Straw and Minister of Prisons Paul Goggins to discuss the issue.

"Drug treatment services in Blackburn and Darwen and within the county need immediate attention," said Fr McCartney, "Services' lack co-ordination and are adhoc.

"Within the last three years, in Blackburn and Darwen, there have been two Drug Action Team co-ordinators and a consultant who has acted as a DAT co-ordinator, three different people in three years co-ordinating a service. At the moment there is no DAT co-ordinator. Because of defective leadership at the top, THOMAS has become a casualty."

THOMAS said that without the funding, which they get from central government via Blackburn with Darwen's Drug Action Team, their prison work would have to be funded using money from other projects.

Derek Harrison, governor of HMP Lancaster, and Ian Hayes, head of drug and resettlement strategy at Preston Prison, have both expressed their disappointment at the news.

Fr McCartney added: "I thank the people of East Lancashire for supporting our work and I am pleased to say that for the next month we will continue to work in both prisons thanks to our supporters' generosity. However, I am sickened and horrified that we have to divert funds from other areas to finance a piece of work that should be funded by government sources.

" Nobody from Blackburn with Darwen Council was available to comment.