PROGRESS on delivering a new health hub to support the homeless community is unclear.

Council leaders signed off on a plan to acquire the hall at St Stephen’s Church in Bournemouth town centre subject to finding an operator to run the service.

A budget of £800,000 was set to purchase the property from the church and to carry out refurbishment work so it could operate as a health hub.

Back in March, BCP Council’s cabinet resolved the chief operating officer carry out a “competitive selection process” to appoint an operator.

This work was delayed slightly by a request to consider calling in the decision, however, following a special overview and scrutiny meeting in late March, the cabinet verdict could progress.

Members of the overview and scrutiny board offered no formal advice by asked if officers could be requested to look at alternative locations for the hub during process of selecting an operator.

Eight months later and the council has not provided any updates on the delivery of the project.

The Daily Echo asked a series of questions about the health hub scheme, including if the acquisition of the church hall in St Stephen’s Way was still going ahead.

A BCP Council spokesperson said: “We cannot at this point comment on the church hall but hope to have news in the near future.”

The spokesperson added: “We are working hard to support people who are impacted by homelessness and those who sleep rough.

“A multi-disciplinary team of health partners has now been operating for a year directly supporting those sleeping rough and we are in discussion with various stakeholders about a Homeless Hub and will give an update when we have more detail.”

The plan for the health hub is to offer a central facility with advice services in addition to healthcare provision.

This would include debt, housing and employment advice, with eh aim of giving people access to guidance quickly and aid them in moving off the streets.

The council had previously refuse to confirm the budget for the project, however, the £800,000 figure was released during the meetings in spring.