SOUTHAMPTON'S pioneering Millennium Centre for the Third Age is to close its doors for good.

Last-ditch talks between council bosses and trustees for the centre this week to try to secure a last-minute rescue package have failed, the Daily Echo can reveal.

A decision to wind down the centre was taken by the board of trustees following the meeting between Southampton City Council, the National Lottery and centre bosses.

It will close its doors for the last time on April 28 when the lease runs out on the building in Cranbury Terrace.

The £1m centre was opened in January 2004. It has provided counselling services and activities for the city's estimated 63,000 older people.

However, centre chiefs were unable to secure £20,000 from the council to keep the centre going.

Three members of staff including centre chief executive Simon Burton will lose their jobs when the centre shuts up shop at the end of the month.

Mr Burton said: "This decision sees the end of two years of hard struggle to secure funding for this visionary project.

"It is a sad day for the future well-being of older people in Southampton. This project, which was probably five years ahead of its time, is a victim of short term financial economies imposed on Southampton City Council Primary Care Trust."

If no alternative community use for the centre is found, the building will also have to be sold to repay the £1m Big Lottery grant given to open the centre.

Third Age chairman Ken Ball added: "This wonderful project was like a star in the sky. Today, it seems as if that star has gone out."

A spokeswoman for Southampton City Primary Care Trust told the Daily Echo that the centre had received the same amount of funding this year as last year.

Southampton City Council leader, Councillor Adrian Vinson, said that the closure of the centre was due to the withdrawal of funding from a number of bodies to the centre over a period of time.

He said: "The city council will, however, continue to explore with other interested parties, including the Big Lottery Fund, ways in which a resource to benefit older people in the city might be retained."