A TERMINALLY-ill man is celebrating a council "U-turn" which means he can die with dignity in his home of 34 years.

Barry Pinder, 55, is set to get his downstairs bathroom extension to his home at Queen Street, Clitheroe, after Ribble Valley Borough Council pledged to try and find the cash for the work.

Housing officers had previously rejected his request for being too costly and tried to persuade him to move into alternative accommodation.

Today, a national disabled charity said it was "shameful" that Barry's plight had to be highlighted in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph in December before the council acted. Then Barry was frustrated that Ribble Valley Borough Council would only offer him alternative accommodation in Clitheroe, which was fully adapted to his needs.

He was adamant he wanted to die at his council-owned home without the upheaval of moving.

Barry has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease, which was diagnosed when he was 28 and his health has since deteriorated. His lungs fail to circulate enough oxygen, causing the symptoms of bronchitis, emphysema and asthma -- which will gradually destroy his health until his body gives up.

For the past four years he has been a "prisoner " in his living room since the heart and lung conditioned worsened and he was put on an oxygen machine all day.

He said a ground floor extension was the only way to give him the privacy he craved. He said he had been stripped of his dignity by having to go to the toilet, wash and get dressed in his living room.

He lives in the house with his partner, Marjorie, and 15-year-old grandson Gary.

His architect is drawing up plans, and an occupational therapist is to assess Barry to see what he needs.

Barry said he first heard that the council might try to obtain funding last week when eight people from Ribble Valley Council and Social Services visited his house for a meeting to discuss helping him stay in his home.

"To see the extension will be a big emotional moment," he said, "I feel I will have my dignity back. I know I have lost a lot of dignity with my disease, but I want to keep what little I have left. "

"The story has had the desired effect, friends have been ringing me saying it made them cry and praised me for having the gumption to go forward. "I don't have to face the upheaval of moving and I would rather die here."

In December Christine Grimshaw, the housing manager at Ribble Valley Borough Council said Mr Pinder's request would be too expensive because of limited resources.

Today she said the council would have looked towards finding the money for an extension even if Mr Pinder had not complained. "We will draw up some plans for a single story extension and these will be submitted to committee for approval to find finance from somewhere," she said. If we have money left over at the end of the financial year in March we can choose to spend that on things like this rather than it going into a reserve. "

Mr Pinder's previous request was denied because it would have cost £15,000 -- too big a slice of the £20,000 Ribble Valley set aside for adaptations on 1,350 council-owned-homes.

Liz Silver, community housing officer for the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation (RADAR), a charity which campaigns for equal rights for disabled people, said the £20,000 budget was "ridiculous".

Today she said: "It's shameful it has taken a newspaper article for them to find the money."

Clive Fisher, of CJ Architects, Oswaldtwistle, is now designing an extension to submit to the council.

He said: "I was at the meeting with Christine Grimshaw and they said they are going to get the money."