Disability charity faces closure

10.42.48am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 17th Jul 2007

A Lancashire charity which has been providing support for people with profound disabilities for more than 50 years is facing closure. Preston and District Scope runs a centre on Eldon Street and also supports families across the region. About 200 families receive support from the charity in the form of classes, activities and advice. Those who run the centre say people assume they receive cash from the Scope national charity which is not the case.

Although it is affiliated to the national charity by name, it was set up for people on a local level and is funded separately.

The charity says it only has enough cash to keep going for a maximum of six months.

Acting Chair Beverly Hindle, who also cares for her son, said: "This is the worst it's ever been in our history. People think with the lottery, scratch cards and Red Nose Day etc that they are already giving to charity, but the truth is we don't see any of that. There are a lot of very worthy charities in this area but we all have to apply for money from the same sources."

The charity estimates it costs between £35,000 and £54,000 a year to fund. It only has a couple of permanent staff who are on a part-time basis to keep costs down and Mrs Hindle says many end up doing a lot of work in their spare time.

Some volunteers have been working overtime trying to raise cash by undertaking everything from parachute jumps and car boot sales to fancy dress pub crawls. But costs are high and even though people who attend sessions pay £3.50 each it actually costs £57 each as many need one-to-one or even two-to-one supervision.

Despite their efforts, Beverly Hindle says there still is not enough money and time is of the essence. "Without financial support our services would disappear and that's a terrible tragedy. Once these services go there's no-one else to replace them," she added. "We might get funding from the lottery or somewhere but you can wait six to nine months to find that out. And even if we were successful, it might be too late."