Plans for a bed and breakfast in The Polygon to be turned into temporary accommodation for children and young people have been approved.

The youth and social services organisation, The Beehive Project, is to use the building in The Polygon to provide 17 bedrooms to care leavers and young people in care.

The plans would see work done to the guest house building, including raising the roof and installing front and rear dormer windows into it.

The Beehive Project is an organisation working to improve the lives of children and young people who are being looked after or leaving care.

This is done by creating and maintaining an environment that promotes well-being and supports learning, personal development and social inclusion.

The plan is to convert the existing guest rooms into the 17 rooms.

Lodged in March, the plans have now been approved.

A planning statement which accompanies the application said: “A typical single room size for the children and young people is 7.5sqm, excluding the kitchen and en-suite facilities.

“The sizes of the proposed individual units vary between 19sqm and 33sqm. These are smaller than a standard one bed flat, but are similar in size to a standard studio flat.”

It added: “The purpose of the conversion of the existing bed/breakfast, into a supported accommodation unit, is to directly support the local authorities of Southampton and Hampshire, in fulfilling their legal duties under Section 72(3) of the 2016 Act relating to the National Transfer Scheme (NTS).

“The National Transfer Scheme is a mandatory scheme that requires local authorities to accommodate a set quota of the children and youths YP’s/UASC’s within their given county.”

Regarding the accessibility of the site, the statement added: “The proposed development has a good access for pedestrians, disabled people and cyclists. An existing alternative rear access to the building is through an alleyway at the side of the adjacent property.

“The alternative access is also used for the refuse/recycle bins collections. The proposal has been designed to respect and enhance the urban form and local character while incorporating principles of crime reduction.”