A CUT-PRICE land deal being put to councillors could mean a desperately-needed new home for a family with two disabled boys.

The boys, Jake and James Howes, will be in Wear Valley's council chamber at Crook, County Durham, on Wednesday, hoping members will hand over land for the bungalow.

Their parents, Helen Blackburn and Alistair Howes, feared they would have to move out of Weardale to find a suitable home. Their present temporary house in Frosterley has narrow doors, steep stairs and is too small for all the equipment four-year-old Jake needs.

Severely disabled after contracting a virus soon after birth, he uses a wheelchair and needs physiotherapy equipment and a hoist to lift him into the bath.

James, eight, also has special needs and was diagnosed with autism around the time of Jake's birth.

The family hope to explain their plight to the council's central resources committee, which must sanction the deal.

Under the deal, a £70,000 plot at Lynndale, Wolsingham, would be leased on a peppercorn rent to Three Rivers Housing Association, which has secured Housing Corporation funding for the bungalow.

Wear Valley housing director Michael Laing said a three-year search by the council, health and social services had failed to find a property which could be successfully adapted.

He said: "Clearly they cannot manage where they are now. There is not enough privacy or space. The family deserve a lot better."

Miss Blackburn said the meeting was the family's last hope.

She said: "Getting a new home would be better than winning the lottery."