THE future of the city's YMCA facility and its residents remains unclear with the current building set to be converted into student accommodation.

Property company Purple Frog was given planning permission to turn the Henwick Road site into a 149-bedroom student block last summer, and hoped it would be up and running next year.

But we understand the charity has no firm plans on where it will move to, with the building currently housing a reported 75 residents, many of who suffer from mental health problems.

A spokesman for Worcestershire YMCA said: “We are currently exploring a number of housing options within Worcester city, that will enable us to expand our accommodation offer within the city once we move from the Henwick Road site.”

A 19-year-old former resident, who did not wish to be named, said she had been told by staff that the new accommodation would be on the other side of the River Severn.

She had allegedly been told it would be much smaller than the current site with "just the rooms and flats".

A spokesman for Purple Frog said: "The owner and developer of the site, PFHD (Worcester) Limited, are working closely with the YMCA to ensure a smooth transition between their occupation of the site and the development stage.

"This a unique opportunity in Worcester and a very exciting project," they continued.

"PFHD looks forward to sharing more information about this exclusive development in the coming months."

The plan, as of last July when it went before the city council, was for the listed building, which dates back to 1868, to house 87 students and a new building to provide 62 bedrooms and be largely screened from the road.

The scheme also features a gym, a cinema room, study facilities, laundry service, communal spaces, en-suite rooms and 42 studio flats, all built with the city’s growing student community in mind.

The plan then was for the entire scheme to be completed ready for the University of Worcester’s 2020/21 student intake.

A university spokesman said as it is not a UoW development and so they did not have any further information about the scheme.

A city council spokesman, similarly, said the city council is not playing a role in this.