Bradford Council faces the possibility of legal action from today with around 70 per cent of its buildings failing to meet new disability access legislation.

The authority says 46 of its buildings are now fully compatible with the Disability Discrimination Act.

But it still has to improve the rest of its 150 properties and has £2 million set aside to do it.

The legislation, introduced under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, is there to make sure "reasonable adjustments" are made to public buildings and services so disabled people have equal access. Disabled rights groups have pledged to test the new law.

David Kennedy, Bradford Council's assistant chief executive, said a lot had been done to improve all manner of services to disabled people. "This legislation is about access to services, not just buildings, which is why we are training a whole lot of our staff in sign language and disability awareness - even if a building is up to scratch, that would not necessarily mean we are providing good services from that building," he said.

Mr Kennedy added: "We have still got lots to do, but I am happy that we provide good services for people with disabilities."

However, Peter Clarke, manager of Disability Advice Bradford, believes today's changes in law need to be backed up by fines.

He said: "The only thing that will make a difference is when organisations or companies start getting fined up to £50,000 a time for making it difficult or impossible for disabled people to access services."

He applauded the efforts made by Bradford Council so far but said it was not enough. "The trouble is they have a lot of buildings, and the legislation here is about 'reasonable adjustment' - £2 million is not going to go far," he said.

"I don't think Bradford will be too far behind other British cities, and will perhaps even be a little bit further on. But the onus has been coming since 1995 and so there has been a long time to make these adjustments."

A spokesman for the Disability Rights Council, an independent body set up to stop discrimination and promote equality, said local authorities who did not comply with the law were in their sights.

"We take a small number of cases every year, individuals come to us if they feel they are discriminated against, and we anticipate that will be the case under the new legislation."

She added: "Local authorities must show they have done something."

But Mr Clarke believes there are simple economic reasons for helping the district's 46,000 disabled people get into museums, galleries and other public buildings.

"They have huge spending power so this has advantages to the service providers and businesses involved because they get more business out of it," he said.

"This is just about a level playing field."