A CONTROVERSIAL scheme to build "affordable" housing on the site of a refuge for people with problems in Winchester is moving closer to becoming reality.

The Trinity Centre is planning to sell up and move home to Durngate, to make way for the development at St Paul's Hill, Fulflood.

Testway Housing Ltd will then buy the site of the former drop-in centre, which helps people with drink and drug addiction, in order to build 13 flats in a "social housing" scheme for working people who can't afford the city's high property prices.

There will be six one-bedroom flats and seven with two bedrooms and an application was submitted to planners on March 7th.

The housing association says the latest application addresses some of the neighbours' fears about a previous application.

Meanwhile, management of the Trinity Centre is discussing outline plans with Portsmouth-based architects, Kerr Livingstone, for a new centre for the needy at the former Red Cross building, at Durngate, near North Walls police station.

There, they want to see a £1m scheme to cater for up to 50 users, which will include a new classroom, kitchen area and crche, which the centre will rent from the city council.

Chief executive of the Trinity Centre for over five years, Michelle Gardner, explained that it was essential that planning permission was granted for the St Paul's Hill site in order for the whole project to go ahead.

"One scheme can't happen without the other," she said. "If we don't get planning permission for the St Paul's Hill site, we'll have to go back to the drawing board."

The Trinity Centre, she added, was applying to funding bodies and charitable trusts to demonstrate to the council its new home would be sustainable.

In May last year, around 40 Fulflood residents attended a meeting with Testway Housing at St Paul's Hill to look at drawings for the proposed housing scheme. Many feared the development was too dense and would not fit into the surrounding area.

"Change is scary for anybody. We needed to move and I hope the residents support this application," said the chief executive.

Russell Anderson, development officer with Testway, said the latest plans produced by Winchester-based architects, Househam Anderson, had taken residents' views into account.

He said the block fronting St Paul's Hill had been reduced from three storeys to two and talks had been held with neighbours who had been concerned with overlooking.

Mr Anderson said: "Our scheme will improve the built environment in that locality."

Residents have until next Tuesday, April 5th, to comment on the scheme and the application has to be decided by the end of May.