DRUG and alcohol abusers in south Wiltshire are unable to access the support they desperately need because health service bosses have lost £60,000 that should be spent on Salisbury people.

Waiting lists at the Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service, based in Fisherton Street, Salisbury, rocketed from a few weeks to nine months, after £60,000 of the centre's budget the equivalent of one-and-a-half full-time counsellors went missing from central funds.

Salisbury MP Robert Key blames the loss on recent changes to the way mental health services are delivered.

Instead of being the responsibility of the local health care trust, they are adminstered by a specialist trust covering Avon and Wiltshire.

He believes that Salisbury ADAS is one of the biggest losers in the changes.

He said: "I was approached by a mother from one of the villages near Salisbury, saying her son had got mixed up in drugs in Salisbury.

"ADAS had to tell her that they couldn't see him because their waiting list was too long.

"I learned that, during the handover, £60,000 left the old trust and never arrived in the new trust."

"Mental health has always been the Cinderella service in Salisbury and this leaves it even more isolated."

Mr Key said that he was trying to track down the missing cash so far without success.

Mental health authority spokeswoman Anne-Marie Carlen said that the money had been lost as a result of an administrative glitch.

"Before the handover, the waiting list in Salisbury was a few weeks at most. Now it is nine months. I believe the missing £60,000 could bring the ADAS waiting list back down in a relatively short time," said Ms Carlen.