A CHARITY that helps disabled Darlington residents is concerned that thousands of people are unaware how seriously council budget cuts will affect them.

Darlington Association on Disability (DAD) is worried that many of the borough’s 22,000 disabled people and 11,000 carers and parents of disabled children have not responded to Darlington Borough Council’s consultation because they do not know the full extent of the cuts.

DAD is so concerned that it has asked to meet council leaders and is urging people to fill out a questionnaire to ensure they are part of the consultation process.

The charity chairman Gordon Pybus said: “There are thousands of disabled people and carers in Darlington whose voices are not being heard.

“There have been strong campaigns for the council to drop some of its proposals, and these also affect disabled people, however without a lot of outside money the only way the council could fund them would be out of their welfare budget.

“So it is vitally important that disabled people and carers know what the proposals are, and let DAD and the council know how they will be affected by them.”

Disabled youngsters and their parents could be hit by more than a dozen of the proposals including; cuts to Early Years support, ceasing concessionary bus passes for carers and charging for carers’ services.

The closure of Vane House visual impairment support service and ceasing funding for DAD’s information service are also in the pipeline.

Meanwhile, in certain circumstances, families could face an additional charge of £27 per week in increased care charges.

Mr Pybus said: “Disabled people, carers and parent carers have been affected already by previous rounds of cuts and national changes and we are very concerned about the future.”

DAD is trying to reach out to as many people as it can and has put together a questionnaire highlighting at least 16 proposed cuts and charging increases that will impact disabled people and carers.

These include to understand proposals such as the blue badge parking charges, but there are more complicated ones in welfare that some people might not fully understand.

The charity is asking people to fill in the questionnaire and return to DAD or the council to ensure they understand the impact these proposals will have on them.

A fact sheet and the questionnaire can be found on DAD’s website at darlingtondisability.org and the charity can be contacted on 01325-489999 or email mail@darlingtondisability.org