A MENTAL health crisis centre has been given a glimmer of hope amid fears over its future.

The Haven Project, in Glen Avenue, Colchester, is due to close in February because its NHS funding has ended.

The service provides roundthe- clock crisis care to 280 people on its books.

Pernille Petersen, chief executive, said funding bids have been made to Essex County Council and the lottery, which could safeguard its future.

She said: “If both are successful we could roll out a smaller type of service in April. However, that is a big ‘if’.

“We are in quite an exciting place because we have submitted some bids and are also waiting for some bigger fish to take a look at what we do, how well we do it and whether there is an argument for a different type of service to be put in place.”

The bids made are £30,000 to the council and £100,000 to the Big Lottery.

The project is still due to move out of the building in Glen Avenue at the end of February.

Ms Petersen said: “That will be followed by either complete closure or a period of laying dormant.

“We would then need to get a new project description in place and find a new property, so March would be our organisational period.”

It costs £500,000 a year to run the project, which had been funded by the North East Essex Clinical Commissioning Group, until it said it did not fit into its plans. Ms Petersen said the new project would have to be run at a lower cost and would no longer provide respite care.

It would, however, offer a telephone and text support service from 7pm to 1am, seven days a week, as well as a recovery service and therapeutic support.

Ms Petersen, who has written to health minister Norman Lamb to ask him to continue the funding, said: “At least there is a glimmer of hope. I am not prepared to give up.”

The petition to save the Haven Project, on change.org, has 2,805 supporters.