A CALL has gone out to hoteliers and restaurateurs across South Lakeland and Furness to back a high-profile fund-raising drive to help keep open a home for disabled people.

The New Holehird group is appealing to people in the hospitality business to help raise cash through the Turning the Tables campaign, which is being launched in The Westmorland Gazette today.

New Holehird is trying to raise £2.8 million to keep open the cherished Windermere home which has been under threat of closure since the national charity, Leonard Cheshire, announced it was being forced to quit the premises in 2007 or 2008, in a devastating blow for residents and all those connected with the house.

Fund-raising got off to a fantastic start with an anonymous £500,000 donation earlier this year and, since then, groups and individuals have also been busy collecting cash. Now, through Turning the Tables, New Holehird is inviting restaurant and hotel bosses to contribute.

They are being asked to donate funds equivalent to a food or drink item from their establishment. For example, a restaurant owner might opt to give the cost of the price of two desserts, a number of covers for an entire meal, or the equivalent of a house bottle of wine to the appeal.

Turning the Tables means everyone should be able to contribute, whether they wish to make a large, or more modest, donation.

New Holehird trustee and proprietor of Grasmere's Jumble Room restaurant, Andy Hill, has got things going by pledging the proceeds from a table for four.

Mr Hill said: "I think it's a fantastic idea and if we can just get that momentum going it will be brilliant."

Among the first to pledge was English Lakes Hotels managing director Simon Berry. He is offering to donate the cost of the meals paid for by the first three couples through the door of the newly refurbished Windermere Restaurant at the firm's Low Wood Hotel, near Ambleside, when it re-opens tomorrow (Saturday) night following a £250,000 refit.

The pledge is likely to amount to between £180 and £200.

Mr Berry said he thought Holehird was a fantastic facility to have on the doorstep: "I would like the whole of the tourism industry and the whole Lake District industry to get involved and back this project because we just must save it for the community and for the whole district."

New Holehird is making the weekend of September 18 and 19 the focus of Turning the Tables, but pledges can be made at any time.

As an added incentive, restaurants and hotels which make a pledge will be mentioned in the Gazette's Food and Drink pages in the Leisure section in the run up to the September date.

To pledge, or for more details, contact Andy Hill on 015394-35188 or 015394-36088.