A CHARITY supporting adults and young people with learning disabilities hopes to move into a new building.

The Dacon Trust has applied to Colchester Council to change the use of and upgrade a building in St John’s Street, Colchester.

The plans are to extend the first floor and add a café and space to run activities.

The space was previously used by Gellers butchers, which closed in 2017.

A key activity of the Dacon Trust charity is the Level Best Art Café in Culver Street East.

The café runs cooking classes to provide work experience for adults with learning difficulties.

As part of the application, a statement of need by the charity says it provides work and life skills training to people with learning disabilities across four social enterprise projects.

The service users run the café, make jams and other gifts to sell, grow produce at an allotment and take part in design projects.

The statement said: “The Level Best Art Café opened in 2008 with just three trainees a week.

“We experienced such high demand for services that we opened a second café in Manningtree in 2013.

“We now provide training to more than 80 trainees a week with waiting lists for placements.”

It added: “The space restraints of our Colchester premises mean we are no longer able to meet the demand for placements.

“It also restricts the number of customers who can visit the café, number of artists who can exhibit in the gallery, storage space and the ability to create new sessions for trainees.

“The development of St John’s Street will allow us to move operations to one site and give us the space and the facilities we need to grow and expand the services we offer.”

The plans will include the development of a shop to sell home-made produce and gifts, a spacious café and an art studio.

New training sessions including accredited courses, creative workshops and graphic design will be created and there will be extra office space for staff.

The whole building would be wheelchair accessible.

The plans have not yet been approved.