CONTROVERSIAL plans for a hostel in Winchester have been dropped in a bombshell move that has delighted campaigners.

The proposal for a hostel on a garage compound off Thurmond Crescent in Stanmore has been widely opposed by local residents mainly because of its huge impact on parking.

Now Eastleigh Housing Association has announced it has withdrawn its scheme for the hostel for mothers and babies because of the parking problems it would create on congested local roads.

The decision means that a six-figure sum of government money is likely to be lost.

City councillor Dominic Hiscock, the Cabinet portfolio holder for housing, said he was greatly disappointed by the decision.

The city council sold the garages to the housing association to enable it to obtain a grant for the hostel.

Mr Hiscock said: "I feel pig sick about it. This hostel is badly needed. The city council is going to have to find another site and the local council tax payer may have to pay for it."

The housing association is looking at building six affordable homes on the site and believes the impact on parking will be diminished.

The proposed hostel was initially one of four that the city council planned.

Two others, in Fox lane, Stanmore and Gordon Avenue, Highcliffe, were dropped by the council after a massive public outcry.

The council was criticised for undertaking a 'community planning' exercise in Highcliffe and Stanmore to identify sites for social housing when officers were secretly planning four hostels for 'vulnerable' people such as single mothers, teenagers and ex-offenders.

The council was accused of deception and the council leader Sheila Campbell publicly apologised. Last month the Daily Echo revealed that even senior councillors, including Mrs Campbell, were kept in the dark for some 18 months about the plans.

The housing association's withdrawl means that now only one 'supported housing' scheme is still proposed, a hostel for ex-offenders in Fivefields Road, Highcliffe.

Jim Cutts, chairman of the Stanmore Community Action Group, when told by the Daily Echo said: "This is good news. We did a survey of parking and there is simply nowhere for the displaced cars to go.

"We have mixed feelings because this hostel is needed and will have to be built somewhere."

Mr Cutts doubted that six affordable homes could be built without a similar impact on parking.

Cllr Patrick Davies, the local ward councillor, said: "I'm tempted to say 'I told you so'. I pointed out there would be enormous parking problems.

"The site is at the end of a very long cul-de-sac and a very narrow road. It is mind-blowing incompetence.

"I'm so cross. The whole thing has caused so much heartbreak and frustration and a waste of public money to get nowhere."