A DRY house for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics is to be built on the site of a former shelter for the homeless in Fareham, despite protests from nearby residents.

The nine-bedroom town centre home will be the last stage of rehabilitation for people getting their lives back on track, acting as a vital "stepping-stone" towards full independence.

However, some residents living near the site of the former Assembly Hall in Kings Road, where the dry house is to be built, fear it will lead to increased crime and antisocial behaviour.

Despite reassurances from Portsmouth and Two Saints housing associations, which are to develop and manage the home respectively, several wrote to Fareham Borough Council objecting.

Full story - see today's Daily Echo