A CASH-strapped ethnic disability centre which has won Lottery cash is appealing for an eleventh hour decision from council bosses to prevent it being turfed out onto the street.

The Pukar Disability Resource Centre, run by wheelchair-bound Poppy Tanna, pictured with service users, applied to move into a council-owned unit in October, but still has not been given a yes or no answer.

Council chiefs have told her they will finally discuss the application on June 10 - almost three months after the group is due to leave its current premises on Fylde Road.

The centre helps disabled children by teaching them English, maths, IT, crafts, and language skills and also provides a forum for them to improve their social skills.

Poppy said: "I feel we are in a catch-22 situation. We are currently in premises which aren't suitable for disabled people so we applied to the council in October for space in Oakham Court.

"The landlord of our current property has told me he would let us stay on if we had council assurances that we could move in to their property later in the year. But at the moment we have to move out in two weeks time."

The group was awarded £5,000 Lottery cash to invest in equipment, toys for the children and a new computer.

Poppy continued: "If we get the town centre place, which is still empty and easily accessible to the disabled, the rent would be £4,000 per year. We presented the council with a business plan and are looking to raise funds to pay the rent.

"We can't use the Lottery money to pay rent as that is specifically for equipment."

Poppy said that at one stage, the group was asked to resubmit its application because the officer dealing with it had left.

Director of estates John Harpin, said: "We get a lot of applications for space in Oakham Court but we cannot let people stay there rent free.

"The group has perhaps not presented their fund-raising side properly. I didn't know that the timescale involved was so long and can't understand why they would have had to reapply if an officer left his job.

"We normally pass these requests on to the Community Development office."

No one from the council's Community Development office was available to comment.

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