A VITAL information service for Blackpool's disabled will close on December 31 unless £5,000 can be found.

A campaign has been launched to save the Blackpool Disability Information Service which has been hit by the ending of government support.

The Blackpool Challenge Partnership which handles the cash says it has not ruled out helping but adds that the DIS knew that money was going to dry up and must be more self-reliant.

At present, the allowance pays the salary of manager Alan Reid but without him in place between January and the new financial year in April the service will close.

That would kill off the DIS bid to get £35,000 lottery funding to run the service for another 12 months.

Alan Cavill manager of the Challenge Partnership said that support for the service was always seen as "seedcorn" money and that DIS were expected to find other funding.

"There doesn't seem to be any sign of the disability Information Service looking for long term funding from another source and what we would be doing is having an open ended agreement.

"It is a very good project and I don't deny everything they do is of great benefit."

He said they had already helped DIS with extra cash on three occasions and they would bridge the gap to April if the organisation found alternative funding.

The service in Clifton Street, which has 14 volunteers, has helped 8,000 people over the last seven years and would close on the first day of the European Year of the Disabled.

"With an increase in needs and no funding to support the work, we face closure," said Alan.

"We were recently awarded a Community Legal Service Quality Mark by the Legal Services Commission and by written confirmation we know that our clients have a high regard for our work. So the problem we face is unfair."

Alan said they had failed to find the money from other sources and were now appealling to local MPs for help in staving off disaster.

He said they were the main group in the town helping the disabled to complete benefit claim forms and their disappearance would throw extra work onto bodies like the Citizens' Advice Bureau.

"For our volunteers the service is a lifeline. Some do one full day a week and it's their way of socialising and fulfilling a need in their lives."