Disabled advisers are threatening protest over fears their voice could be silenced.

Members of the Disabled Persons' Advisory Group, which includes disabled residents who volunteer their help to City of York Council, said they would demonstrate unless the group's future was ensured.

Group members wrote to council leader Rod Hills after hearing that the introduction of cabinet government threatened committees.

A council spokesman told them: "It is possible that the Disabled Persons Advisory Group might not continue to exist in its present form under the new system."

And, although the council is eager to reassure members that a disabled voice would still be needed, officers were unable to say what form it would take.

Group member Lynn Jeffries said: "The people attending the last meeting were shocked to hear about these changes and are uncertain about what the group's future is.

"We have written and asked to be told exactly what is going on and we will certainly be discussing it further at a meeting tonight. If we lose this group then we would lose our voice, and it is shocking that it could be taken away."

The group was formed after York's disabled people felt they did not have a strong enough say on issues affecting them.

It is now consulted on a wide variety of issues, from public transport to building, to ensure that development and changes in the city meet the needs of the disabled.

Mrs Jeffries said: "It can be literally anything that we are consulted on and we are making it clear that we are not happy about any change.

"I think we will be demonstrating unless we are assured that we will still have a say."

Details of the structure change will not be fully known until councillors discuss it in the near future.

But it is known that most committees will be scrapped, with decisions being taken by a cabinet of councillors, and scrutinised by "backbenchers."

Councillor Ken King, a member of the group, has given an assurance that the disabled person's voice is important and will be retained in some form.

He said: "As far as I am aware there has been no decision made about this yet, and all the papers I have seen indicate that something will be there to give the disabled a voice.

"There will be lots of changes under the new structure, but there will certainly be some representation for disabled people. The Disabled Persons' Advisory Group has been a great success and great improvements have been made because of it.

"I am convinced it will continue in some form or another so disabled people can get their views across."

The Disabled Persons' Advisory Group meets tonight.

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