THE NEW meningitis C vaccine has begun to arrive at clinics and doctors' surgeries in East Lancashire, it was revealed today.

The news comes after a furious father from Hoddlesden claimed his 18-year-old daughter could risk catching the killer brain bug because nobody would give her the jab.

John Briggs, of Glenshiels Avenue, told the Lancashire Evening Telegraph on Friday that Alison was commuting from her home to Manchester Metropolitan University.

She was not eligible for the jab in Manchester, where students are being targeted for vaccination, and her dad had unsuccessfully tried to find a local doctor who would give her the vaccination.

East Lancashire Health Authority has blamed the shortage of the vaccine on manufacturers failing to meet demand - but said it had now started to arrive in the district. A health authority spokeswoman said: "There is a national shortage and manufacturers have not been able to keep up with demand.

"But it is starting to filter through to this area and doctors have been made aware of this. The general advice to people is to keep contacting their GP to ask if the vaccine is available.

"The girl in Hoddlesden is in a lower risk age group because she is commuting and is not living on a university campus."

The new vaccine will protect people against meningitis C - but not the B strain of the disease which has killed thousands of people.

First groups to receive the vaccine will be babies who will be vaccinated when they get their routine diphtheria-tetanus-whooping cough, polio and Hib (influenza B) jabs at the age of two, three and four months; children receiving their first MMR jab at about 13 months and children over four months and under one year.

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