A MENTAL health charity and a housing association have joined forces to provide new housing in Malvern.

Malvern Mencap and Festival Housing have made a joint planning application to build on land between Sherrards Green Road and Madresfield Road.

The plan is for two linked bungalows for mentally handicapped adults and two two-bedroom social housing units.

The land, which has been bought by Mencap, is a former orchard.

Geoff Oakley, chairman of Malvern Mencap, said the new bungalows were intended to replace Mencap homes in Wren Avenue, off Elgar Avenue.

"We've had these for the last 15 years, and we have eight residents there. But they aren't getting any younger, and the time has come for us to move to new accommodation on one level," he said.

Mr Oakley said new regulations that have been introduced since the Wren Avenue homes were built meant that a new start was advisable.

"We've sat down and talked with planning officers and we're reasonably confident that we will be granted planning permission," he said.

If permission is granted, this will open the door for Malvern Mencap to apply for funding from the National Lottery.

Once the new homes are built, the houses in Wren Avenue will revert to Festival Housing's ownership.

Gwenda Cope, of Festival Housing, said the two two-bedroom bungalows would be built as affordable housing.