A dramatic rise in heroin abuse is forcing health chiefs to ration needles and syringes for addicts.

The pioneering Bradford Needle Exchange Scheme has spent half the scheme's £100,000 equipment budget in just three months.

Now syringes and needles are being rationed to 21 a week to each user.

The move has been branded as "outrageous" by a leading drugs expert who fears it could lead to an increased risk of disease including HIV and hepatitis.

Demand for needles and syringes issued by the Bradford Needle Exchange Scheme has soared from 554 a month, when it was set up eleven years ago, to more than 50,000 a month this year.

An estimated 2,000 drug users across Bradford each week use the needle scheme, which was the first of its kind in the world and has become the model for other projects in the country.

Karl Dallas, chairman of Bradford Community Health Council's drugs and alcohol addiction committee, said: "Financial constraints shouldn't be a deciding factor in supplying clean needles to people because not supplying them may cause the spread of all sorts of diseases.

"We have what is in effect a potential epidemic and we need to control it by any means possible. For it to be cut back is really outrageous."

The cutback coincides with a Home Office report on heroin use published a week ago which described a 'classic epidemic outbreak' in Bradford involving large numbers of young people from the poorest parts of the city as well as an increasing proportion of young women and Asian youngsters.

Bradford North MP Terry Rooney said he was concerned about any reduction in the service.

"Without these sort of schemes needles get abandoned all over the place and it's not just drug users that are affected, it's innocent bystanders," he said. "The underlying message, despite the propaganda of police and customs, is that heroin is rampant in Bradford and you need to cut off supplies as well as dealing with the affects of it."

A spokesman for the needle exchange said rationing had been introduced for the next three months because of financial problems caused by an increase in heroin use in the area.

"Although increased use is a significant cause for concern, the effectiveness of the local needle exchange scheme means Bradford continues to have one of the lowest rates of HIV transmission in the UK.

"During this time we hope to find ways of meeting the extra cost of increased demand and discussions are now being held with Bradford Council and Bradford Health Authority."

Dr Julian Roberts, public health consultant at Bradford Health Authority, said the scheme's equipment budget had been increased to £100,000 from £70,000 last year.

"We had anticipated that it might last until the end of the financial year but demand has continued to rise quite dramatically. We decided 21 needles a week - three a day - was a reasonable number to be giving out to people who are either injecting heroin or prescribed methadone.

"It is a pilot so we will see what impact that will have both on demand and on the way people use the scheme."

He said there were competing demands for NHS cash, and drugs misuse was one of many.

A spokesman for Bradford Council's environmental protection division said it was too early to say if extra cash could be found.

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