This year is the European Year of Disabled people and Macclesfield Disability Information Bureau plan to make the borough a more accessible place for everyone.

The Bureau provides advice on issues such as benefits, healthcare and leisure activities for the town's disabled people.

Those businesses, who have not done so already, will have to make changes this year to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act to make their service a more accessible place.

Pam Bates, manager of the Bureau, said: "Here at the Bureau, we recognise that this can seem an overwhelming task, particularly for the smaller businesses whoa are already struggling with increasing red tape and legislation."

To help the town's providers of goods and services, the Macclesfield DIB is offering a free and practical information service to help businesses through this process. The staff have compiled an extensive resource pack to help owners and managers decide what they need to do.

The pack consists of a self assessment check list to identify what areas need to be improved to make a service more accessible, a resource pack which will indicate the costs that might be involved at each stage to make changes and adaptations, particularly concentrating on low cost or no cost alternatives.