Disabled students and their teachers at a Bradford training centre are pleading for help in a last ditch bid for new premises.

People at DATA (Disabled Access to Technology Association), which offers free computer courses to disabled people, say they have been asked to move out of Broomfield House, Bolling Road, in September by landlord Bradford Council.

It is understood the Council might sell off the ageing office block which needs major investment to bring it up to scratch. The other tenant of the block, the Council training agency ITEC, is set to move to new city centre premises this summer.

DATA, a registered charity, has 50 students on its rolls and over the past 14 years has chalked up an impressive record of retraining disabled people, enabling them to land a variety of paid jobs.

Since hearing in December that they might have to move out of Broomfield House, leaders have searched exhaustively for a new base, inspecting 26 properties and poring over details for 100 more - but none has been suitable, says manager Catherine Portman.

Many students are wheelchair-bound or have mobility problems which means DATA needs lots of space (2,500 sq ft) and at least eight convenient car parking spaces nearby. Ideally it will be on the ground floor and within three miles of Bradford City Centre.

"Two officers from the Council visited us in December and explained they wanted Broomfield House to be vacant by September, 1998. They have encouraged us to move to the Carlisle Business Centre in Manningham but it is not suitable," said Mrs Portman.

The crisis over premises comes at a time when DATA is going from strength to strength. The charity won nearly £100,000 in funding from Bradford Council earlier this year and was recently donated six more computers by the Bradford & Bingley Building Society. It has also won a contract to deliver training to 18 to 25-year-olds under the Government's flagship New Deal programme.

A spokesman for Bradford Council denied formal notice had been served on the group.

"We have kept DATA informed of the situation regarding other occupants of this building and of the possibility that we might have to review its use, if our other tenants choose to leave," the spokesman added.

"We have provided DATA with information on other possible premises both within and outside the authority."

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