APPROVAL has been granted for the final part of a former care home for addicts to be converted into flats.

In March, Bournemouth council permitted the redevelopment by MS Residential Limited of Quinton House into 12 flats. The home was formed of two semi-detached houses in Campbell Road, a Boscombe cul-de-sac, and closed in September 2015.

Now council officers have lifted a restriction on the final part of the site, an attached coach house which had a condition preventing its use as normal residential accommodation.

In a report, planning officer Sophie Edwards said: "A condition was imposed to ensure that the premises would only be used for purposes ancillary to the main residential care home for alcoholics and not as a separate entity.

"This was justified in order to ensure that the development would not otherwise result in an undesirable mixed form of development.

"This building appears to have been used in connection with the care home for several years and not as a separate residential building."

With no external works planned for the building and the purpose of its approved use having ceased, permission to drop the condition was granted under delegated powers.

Quinton House was, with the Providence Project, one of two residential rehabilitation centres in Boscombe when it closed, although the area still has numerous areas of supported housing for people with drug and alcohol addictions.

It was founded and run for 31 years by Lorraine Parry, but struggled in its later years with reduced government funding.

The site was heavily criticised by some residents of the surrounding area concerned about crime and antisocial behaviour resulting from addicts being sent to Boscombe for treatment.

However many of the care home's former patients took to Facebook on its closure to express their gratitude at how it had changed their lives.