AN Eastleigh nightclub is set to be demolished and replaced with 33 flats, aimed at providing affordable housing close to the town centre.

Breezers, which occupies a prominent site on the corner of Southampton Road and Blenheim Road, will be bulldozed along with a pair of maisonettes fronting Southampton Road if civic chiefs approve the plans.

In place of the mainly single-storey club building would be a three-storey and four-storey block of flats, with access from Market Street. The scheme, from Highwood Construction and Winchester Housing Group, also proposes underground car parking, cycle and bin storage, plus associated landscaping.

The building has been used as a club since the early 1980s, when Eastleigh Council provided it as a replacement for The Unity Club's premises, which were replaced by development of the town's showpiece Swan shopping centre.

In an officers' report going to Tuesday's meeting of the borough's Eastleigh Local Area Committee, members will be told that even though it provides a community facility, the loss of the club would not undermine the attractiveness of the town centre.

It points to numerous evening entertainment and community facilities, plus social clubs, within close range of the site.

The report adds that the developers have submitted an application that is in line with a housing needs survey that identified a high demand for smaller affordable homes in the borough, particularly in Eastleigh town centre.

Councillors will hear that if permitted, the development would be managed by Winchester Housing Group, and that the 'affordable' element would consist of subsidised rented accommodation, shared ownership, market rented, and a limited number of flats for sale.

Two letters of objection from neighbours have been lodged with the council, raising concerns over increased traffic, unauthorised parking, and loss of light to part of St Andrew's Methodist Church.