A LIFELINE service for people with disabilities is to open a temporary branch in Southend town centre.

The council-run Avro day centre in Avro Road, Southend, helps people with learning difficulties and other disabilities to learn practical skills and training.

But the council plans to launch an alternative service, based in the town centre, for a trial period over a year to 18 months.

Southend Council insists the new centre “is absolutely not a plan to close the service down”, but to offer an alternative for people who use it.

The new town centre base will offer a drop-in service with flexible opening times in the evenings and at weekends rather than a residential-style day centre like Avro.

The council thinks the new model will appeal more to younger people who want to lead ordinary lives as part of the community and prefer more choice and independence.

It is still looking for a location for the service, which will offer job advice, information and social activities.

The Avro centre will still stay open during the trial period if users prefer to keep going there instead.

There are no plans to change the accompanying Viking day service, on the same site, which helps people with severe physical and mental disabilities.

Simon Leftley, Southend’s director of adult and community services, said: “The Avro Centre works well at the moment. It does a really good job.

“But can things be improved? This is evolution rather than revolution. It’s absolutely not a plan to close the service down, it’s an alternative for people who choose to use it.

“Carers and users can experience the new service before any decision is made. There might be some point in the future where we make a decision about whether its viable to keep the Avro service. But that will be some way off, if at all.”

The plans, which will be discussed by senior Tory councillors at a meeting on Tuesday, follows a year-long consultation with users.

Of the 600 people in Southend registered with learning disabilities, 143 attend Avro and 36 Viking, with the rest using private services. The cost of the new model has not been decided.