AFTER some 20 years, a Winchester charity that helps the vulnerable and homeless is set to get a purpose-built base.

Work has started on a new multi-million pound base for the Trinity Centre.

Durngate Place, the former Red Cross building, is being demolished and a £2 million facility arise in its place.

City council leader George Beckett symbolically started the demolition last Wednesday (June 27).

The charity has operated since 1986, starting in the Trinity church hall on Upper Brook Street, hence the name.

For the first seven years it was in several temporary sites, until 1993 when it moved to a former church hall on St Paul's Hill.

A funding appeal, led by Viscount Lifford, brought in over £2m. The city council is offering the site on the edge of Winnall Moors at a peppercorn rent.

The number of clients using Trinity's services rises each year. Around 50 people currently attend the centre each day, about 17 of whom are rough-sleepers.