A DALES charity that offers a lifeline to vulnerable people must find 400 members.

But the chairman of the Durham Dales Community Alarm Trust has said the charity must retain its identity and not be swallowed up in a larger organisation.

The trust offers push-button alarms to elderly or vulnerable people that alert volunteers in the event of sudden illness, a fall or an emergency.

At its annual meeting, the trust heard from Andrew Aitken, the business manager of Sedgefield Borough Council.

The council's Carelink service manages the control centre, through which the alarm trust's emergency calls are received.

Mr Aitken said Carelink hoped to work with the alarm trust to help deliver the Supporting People initiative across Sedgefield and the Durham Dales.

New services could include mobile wardens who would make regular home visits and offer services such as telemedicine, where people's vital signs can be recorded and transmitted electronically from their homes.

Mr Aitken said that for Carelink to remain viable, it needed to double in size.

It has 8,859 users. The alarms trust would need to find an extra 400 members.

Mr Aitken said: "The only way to take things forward is we all have to work together otherwise neither of us will survive.

"I do believe there are other funding streams available - it is about finding them, but if the money is there, I'll find it."

The Reverend John Moore, the alarm trust's chairman, said that while he welcomed the idea of mobile wardens, he did not envisage them going into snowbound Teesdale in winter.