A COTTAGE in Whiteparish that has provided shelter for hundreds of homeless people is to be sold.

Harestock Cottage, owned by Salisbury district council, was leased to Salisbury Trust for the Homeless as a night shelter from 1997 until October last year.

Before that, it was used as a homeless families' hostel.

The property, which has six bedrooms and extensive grounds, needs refurbishment, but, says the council, could be worth £300,000.

It is to be auctioned in February.

The sale will mark the end of a series of emergency night shelters for those sleeping rough in the city during the coldest months of the year.

The first such shelter was in a ward of the Old Manor Hospital, in Wilton Road, the second the former corn exchange, in Ashley Road, and then attempts were made to set up shelters in Wyndham Road, Cherry Orchard Lane, Middleton Road and Christie Miller Road, before the council agreed to allow Harestock Cottage to be used.

Andrew Reynolds, head of strategic housing for the council, said the council still had a statutory duty to house certain categories of people, which it did.

He said: "Last year, we did not experience that many rough sleepers approaching the council for help.

"We still recognise there is a need and we shall still use bed and breakfast accommodation in absolute emergencies.

"We deal with people as they come in, on a case by case basis."

He said Harestock Cottage had suffered from being remote from Salisbury, where the greatest need was, and the need to lay on transport had made it costly to run.

The council's long-term aim was to try to develop a crisis-assessment centre, which would incorporate a night shelter and which would assess people to see if they could be integrated back into society.

"We still have plans for that but trying to find a property in Salisbury is quite difficult," he said.

"It needs to be of a reasonable size to make it viable and to accommodate multiple uses.

"The prices of land and property are high - a suitable property has recently sold for £1m.

"We have to use public money in a cost-effective way, but it is still our aim to develop this centre."

Mr Reynolds said the council had to get the best value it could from the sale of Harestock Cottage and it had opted for auction as the most appropriate method.

"It is a substantial plot and someone may decide to demolish the cottage and rebuild," he said.

The planning use of the building is as a hostel, so any scheme to develop the site would need planning permission.