FURIOUS residents have told a drugs charity to stay away from their community after coming face to face with its bosses for the first time.

A meeting between Changing Lives – the organisation proposing to convert The Melbourne pub into a dry facility for people in recovery – and those living in the area, was a heated affair from start to finish.

Families and pub regulars made it clear they admire the group’s work, but do not want another facility on their doorstep which helps former addicts.

The nearby Peasholme Centre for the homeless, in Fishergate, Ordnance Lane hostel and a children's home can all be found within a short walk from the Cemetery Road pub.

This has led to residents calling on the charity to drop their plans before they are submitted to City of York Council, and find an alternative space.

A resident of Melbourne Street, who gave her name only as Claire, said she had already suffered at the hands of drug users near her home.

"My problem is that I've worked out that there's five places like this within a one mile radius," she told the packed meeting at York's Novotel.

"I used to live next door to a drug dealer and it was horrendous.

"My argument is that we are already swamped with places like this."

Others attending the meeting were angered the centre would be close to primary schools and a care home, but high on the agenda was the potential closure of The Melbourne.

One speaker added: "How do you feel about moving the people who want a beer out and moving your people in?

"There's people in wheelchairs but there's no other pubs with wheelchair access in the next five pubs. Don't do this. Find another pub."

The charity's representatives stressed - despite being constantly interrupted - that it was the decision of the brewery Enterprise Inns to close the pub and they were only exploring the options open to them.

Mum-of-two Claire Gibb, of Melbourne Street, added: "What we feel as a community is we are getting thrown out of a pub to move in a service that's incredibly niche.

"We've already got services like this just up the road but what we don't have is disabled access in a pub people already use."

Eileen Ronan, director of Changing Lives, defended the plans.

She said: "Changing Lives are going to make the building into a new community resource, the centre will not be a place for individuals who are intoxicated, there are existing services in York who provide support to people who are struggling in active addiction.

"What we will be doing is providing a place where members of the community who are in recovery, and what I mean by this is those individuals no longer are using any substances and have made an active choice to remain abstinent, can come to in order to continue their lives in a positive in meaningful way."