THE future of Andover’s historic almshouses is back on the agenda as trustees begin talks on a new plan.

Andover Charity Trustees – the organisation behind the project – has launched a new committee to discuss the Adelaide Road site.

In November last year Test Valley Borough Council’s (TVBC) Northern Area Planning Committee rejected proposals to demolish the four existing homes to build 12 flats.

The long-awaited £1.5million project has seen designs change and complications over land ownership, but now the trustees, working with TVBC, have agreed that a survey of the building should take place.

Member of the Andover Charity Trustees Councillor Chris Lynn said: “We have decided at the moment to do a full structural survey of the almshouses, until we have got that report we can’t go anywhere else.

“The architect did go and look around and decided it wasn’t worth repairing. If they [the architects] come back and say that is the case and we need to knock it down then we have an excuse to knock it down or ‘I think it is going to be OK’, then we have got the rest of the options to look at.”

Cllr Lynn said a number of options are now on the table including previous plans to demolish the current properties and construct a similar building.

He added that the committee is also suggesting that if the almshouses are structurally sound, then refurbishment work will be carried out and let.

“If we add to the almshouses then there should be 10 flats, if we have an iconic building that would be 12 flats. It is really a matter of finding out what the almshouses are like,” Cllr Lynn added.

And it is also being discussed that the current building could be elongated, with new additions either side.

Currently, only one of the four almshouses is lived in, with the tenant saying she will only move out when work begins to replace the existing block.

Concerns were previously raised that if the building is replaced it would be a destruction of a heritage asset and an overdevelopment of the site.