A CONTROVERSIAL centre for homeless people in Worcester which was on the verge of collapse is being saved, it has emerged.

Your Worcester News can reveal how a new plan has been backed to build three studio apartments on the site of the old Heenan’s Social Club, in Sansome Place, to make the threatened project viable.

In July last year Worcester City Council gave the green light to a £2 million plan to turn the derelict club into 16 flats for rough sleepers.

But due to stark funding cuts St Paul's, which was looking to manage the scheme, pulled out and its future has been uncertain ever since.

The newly-hatched plan means the communal garden, kitchen, meeting room and interview offices will no longer form part of the finished development. replaced by three studio apartments and one bedsit.

It will be taken on and run entirely by housing association Fortis Living, which will adopt the same 24-hour security and site management as St Paul's.

It was backed by the council's planning committee, which said it was glad fresh plans were on the table.

During the meeting Councillor Robert Rowden said he was concerned the extra development, and the fact St Paul's was no longer involved, could lead to a "less controlled environment".

But senior planning officer Alan Coleman said there will still be the same 24-hour security and a police drop-in room.

Councillor Paul Denham said: "This is a very sensible response to a funding gap, and it seems to me that by removing the communal area there'll be less chance of anti-social behaviour."

Councillor Lynn Denham said: "The original planning permission was very controversial.

"Since then there's been regular meetings between the builders, residents and developer and that relationship has been exemplary.

"The original vision for this building has fallen victim to austerity cuts, but what we have in front of us now is viable and acceptable."

The building is currently at an advanced stage of re-development, led by Fortis Living, despite St Paul's pulling out.

Under the fresh plan, St Paul's will still provide suitable people to live in the flats, but will leave the housing association to run it.

Homeless people in need of ‘move-on’ accommodation will be offered rooms.

The idea is to encourage them to become more independent, before they are confident enough to secure permanent places to live elsewhere.

When the homeless centre plans first became public last summer it led to more than 100 objections.