By Mike Sheridan, local democracy reporter

Work is set to begin early next year on converting a former Shrewsbury care home into a supported housing scheme.

Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing is now advertising for a contractor for building works on Coton Hill House, Berwick Road, which will be converted into temporary supported accommodation for people who have been homeless.

The works will see 75 bedrooms at the former care facility converted into 25 separate apartments designed to provide “halfway-house” facilities to support people who have been homeless to move on to independent living elsewhere.

Minor external alterations are included in the plans, including the addition of external doors for six of the apartments, with access to all the others via the building’s main entrance.

Contractors are expected to begin on site in early 2024, with a planned opening date for the facility of March 2025.

The building closed as a care home in 2019, but has sat empty since it was last used as emergency accommodation for homeless people during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The council said the scheme, which will also see 12 staff based at the building to provide support to residents, forms part of a new “homeless pathway” to take people out of homelessness and help them into living independently.

Planning was granted in October in the face of strong opposition. The planning application received 282 objections and a petition was raised against the scheme.