Disabled residents and tourists face months without vital information on which shops, pubs, restaurants and other facilities are accessible.

Brighton and Hove City Council has scrapped its DisabledGo website, which helps 35,000 disabled residents and 8.7 million tourists, at the end of last year.

A replacement service has been hit by delays.

In a change of policy, the council is now attempting to reinstate DisabledGo for another year.

But the company behind the web site has rejected the council's one-year proposal, claiming the local authority has shown no commitment to the service while other councils have signed up for three-year deals.

Dr Gregory Burke, chief executive of the company, said: "Every council that we work with is committed to a three-year agreement to ensure that provision of information isn't short-term.

"If the council insists on one year's funding we will regrettably have to say we will have to invest in other areas that have given commitment to DisabledGo.

"It would be disingenuous to say it's not partly on financial terms but we cannot put time and effort into the site for it to come down in 12 months.

"Already our brand name has been slightly tarnished by the fact that we have aimed to bend over backwards and keep the site up while trying to persuade Brighton council to renew."

More than 4,000 people visited the Brighton and Hove DisabledGo web site every month until the council suspended it, ruling the £4,000 cost of upgrading the service was too expensive.

The web site was launched three years ago with much fanfare to allow people to check whether a pub is accessible to wheelchair users, a cinema can offer a hearing loop, a hotel offers adapted rooms or a restaurant welcomes assistance dogs or offers menus in large print or Braille.

But the council last year accepted an offer from the Brighton branch of the Federation of Disabled People to run a service for £5,000 a year, because it believed the service would be improved.

Councillor Anne Meadows, who has been working on the project, said the decision was not a U-turn and that the new site will be much more city focused.

She said: "Obviously things have taken a different turn.

"We have to fund DisabledGo until we have the ability to give appropriate support and help through the federation."

Disability campaigner Colin Bennett, who has fought the decision said: "This represents a success. However behind this is a really disgraceful saga of the council's behaviour to DisabledGo."