A LAW service helping hundreds of residents could be thrown a lifeline, even as it stares into a funding abyss.

Advice provider the Wiltshire Law Centre stands to become a victim of legal aid cuts which the government wants to make later this year.

But now MP Robert Buckland said even if the funding cuts sailed through, he would argue the centre is a “special case” in the region and should be kept open.

The South Swindon Tory MP said: “My view is if these changes are to go through, there’s a case for organisations like the law centre to get special funding, in recognition of the fact it plays a very important role in looking after the vulnerable.

“In Swindon, if you have a problem with something like social housing, the only place you can go is the law centre.

“I would worry that if we lose it, we’ll have a desert of advice and representation for people who really need it.

“I’d look to either the Ministry of Justice or other departments to provide some sort of block funding to recognize the work of the law centre.”

A public consultation on the plans to slash the legal aid budget ended last week.

In the next fortnight, the justice select committee, on which Mr Buckland sits, will issue a report into how the changes would affect the country.

The law centre, celebrating its 30th birthday in September, has given legal advice to more than 1,000 residents on benefits, debt and housing since last spring alone.

It gets about £200,000 each year, and has a government contract to provide advice until 2013.

Richard Hazell, housing solicitor at the centre, in Commercial Road, said: “Two thirds of our income would be taken away if the green paper (the basis for a draft bill) is enacted.

“It would effectively close us down.”

Asked the impact on his clients, he said: “They wouldn’t get face-to-face advice in our specialist area.

“They’d get telephone advice, but surveys have found telephone advice is never as good quality.”