A TREATMENT centre for drug addicts and alcoholics will be moved to the heart of Southend, despite spirited objections from its new neighbours.

Members of Southend Council’s development control committee rubber-stamped South Essex Partnership Trust’s plan to use the empty County Chambers building, in Weston Road, as the new base for its Community Drug and Alcohol Service.

The trust needs to find a new home for the treatment centre after council chiefs decided to demolish Queensway House, its current base, next summer.

But the bid to use the former solicitors’ office, just off the High Street, has stirred up anger among nearby residents and businesses, who argued it was not the right place.

Maria Caunce, a Tory councillor for the area, spoke up on behalf of objectors at the committee meeting.

She said: “Everybody I spoke to said it was a valuable service that we really need.

“But the question was whether this really was the right place for it - whether it could have gone somewhere else with even better transport links and fewer homes nearby.”