CONTROVERSIAL plans to demolish a once loved Southampton social club have been scrapped.

Freemantle Social Club, on Waterloo Road, had stood as a community space for locals for more than a century before last orders were called in 2014.

Since then it has not been used, so developers Simpson Hilder Associates set out to bulldoze the centre and replace it with a new three-storey building with nine new flats.

Within its application to the city council, Simpson Hilder planned to create seven one-bedroom and two two-bedroom living quarters.

But the scheme has been rejected by city council planners.

Originally, the developers hoped to create 11 dwellings on the site but this was refused last June.

Since the new proposal was submitted in December some residents have come forward to voiced their objections to the new plan, with some citing that rear access from site to Dymott Close as a major concern.

Nicola Holland, from the close, said: “The area as a whole is trouble with drug dealers.

“One is dealt with by the police and another moves in. There are constantly cars and people using our small close to pick up and drop off drugs.”

“ I am giving information to the police with photographic evidence where possible as and when I am home and witness the transactions.

”A rear access will not only become the latest drug drop off point as it will be well hidden from the main road.

"It is also in danger of causing residents in this new build to try to use our already busy residential car park.”

Cllr Jeremy Moulton, ward representative for Freemantle, added: “To protect the residents of the close, there should be no access potential over looking of Dymott Close.”

The building, which has stood since the late1800s, had been used as headquarters for the club since 1948.

Membership rose to 3,000 in the mid-1970s.