DAY services used by more than 170 people with learning disabilities are set to move.

Officers are to recommend Southend Council close the Avro part of the Avro Viking Centre, in Avro Road, Southend, transferring services to Alexandra Street, Southend, St James the Great Church hall, in Elmsleigh Drive, Leigh, and Southend Adult Community College, in Ambleside Drive, Southchurch.

Lesley Salter, Southend councillor responsible for adult social care, said a pilot study carried to see if a better service could be provided from Alexandra Street where service users were at the centre of the community and close to ordinary shopping areas and the seafront had been a success.

She said: “We found many people have been able to travel to Alexandra Street independently due to the better transport links."

More than half of the 295 people who responded to a consultation backed the plan, with only 14 per cent opposed.