A controversial shake-up of services for deaf people in Bradford will go ahead as a six-month trial.

Social services chiefs have promised to look again at the situation six months after transferring the interpreting and social work service from Hallfield Road to Morley Street in Bradford.

The plans were bitterly opposed by the Bradford and District Association for Deaf People who said the facilities should be kept at Hallfield Road. They signed a petition protesting against the proposals which formed part of a wider review of the services Bradford Council provides to people with sensory impairments, including blindness and deafness.

Peter Kay, of Bradford Social Services, said the authority had consulted widely on the plans. Most users were happy but there had not been a consensus among profoundly deaf people who had been consulted. As part of the plans, specific support for elderly deaf people, vulnerable deaf people and those who have become suddenly deaf, has been stepped up.

Councillor Ghazanfer Khaliq, chairman of the Council's services to people with disabilities sub-committee, said: "Any change is difficult but I hope this change will enhance the services being provided. We will review it after six months and see if a majority of people are dissatisfied with the service then."

Roland Haythornthwaite, chairman of the governors at the Hallfield Road centre, said campaigners had been thrown a lifeline by the promise of a review in six months time.

But he said it was not appropriate to put blind and deaf services together under one roof at the social services centre in Morley Street.

"Blind people have nothing in common with deaf people, they cannot communicate with each other and have entirely different needs," he added.

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