RESIDENTS of a supported housing scheme in Weymouth are celebrating after a local charity stepped in at the eleventh hour to save the service from closure.

The Dorset Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) group will take over running Sander-son House in Dorchester Road and Anvil House in East Street from February 1.

The move comes after Dorset County Council’s Supporting People Group announced it would withdraw funding for the service which provides beds for up to 25 disadvantaged youngsters.

The announcement left a question mark hanging over where residents would be moved on to and led to a widely-backed campaign to save the service.

Weymouth and Portland councillor Amanda Legg, who represents Tophill East on Portland, is the current project manager for Anvil Housing and will continue in the role after its operation is transferred to the ADHD group.

She said: “The service delivery will be improved because there is a professional body linked with the support group that is now on board to deliver a more comprehensive service.”

These professionals include community and mental health staff, medical professionals, paediatricians and psychologists and the service will specialise in helping young people affected by ADHD, Asperger’s Syndrome and other impairments.

Coun Legg, who volunteers for the support group, said none of the current service users will be moved out of the properties if they do not suffer these conditions, adding that over 70 per cent of service users are affected by them.

She said: “We’ve done our homework on the scheme and it is still a much-needed service.

“The staff and residents are over the moon now that it’s been saved.”

Coun Legg’s mother and executive director of the Dorset ADHD support group, Margaret Alsop, said she was delighted that the group is stepping in to take over running the project.

Service user Rosie Bennett, who led residents in campaigning to keep the houses open, said: “I think it’s great that the facility will remain for people in the future.

“It’s been a great help to me and I’m glad to know it will be there to help others in the future.”

Service user Becci Newman, 17, said: “We were so happy to learn this place would stay open.

“We didn’t know where we were going to go at first and it’s important to me to be able to stay here.”

Resident Luke Holmes, 20, added: “It was worrying not knowing whether this place would stay open. I think everybody felt a bit overlooked but everybody’s happy now.”

Coun Legg said the service will have a basic annual running cost of £350,000 per year although this could rise to £500,000 per year with the employment of more specialist care staff.

She added that the vast majority of funding will come from charitable donations to the support group but that it will also be able to claim housing benefit as the properties’ landlord.

A Dorset County Council spokesman said the service had cost its Supporting People Group around £252,000 per year to run.