A struggling shelter for homeless people will be given a £50,000 cash injection.

St Patrick's night shelter in Hove was in trouble after Brighton and Hove City Council withdrew its £200,000 annual funding package last month.

Yesterday, the leading Labour group agreed the council should provide £50,000 for research on how to bring it up to the required standard of accommodation.

Father Alan Sharpe, who founded the shelter, said: "We're very pleased. We have had quite a time with it all and this gives us a breathing space to look at what we are doing.

"Last night there were still 22 people in the night shelter and 18 in the cafe so they do just keep coming."

The decision to axe the funding was made because Father Sharpe refused to turn away homeless people who had no connections to the city, in breach of council policy.

The council was also unhappy with the quality of the dormitory style accommodation offered to residents of the Hove shelter, which was costing taxpayers £300 a week for each bed.

But campaigners collected 10,000 signatures in a petition asking for the shelter to be saved.

Liberal Democrat councillors also lobbied for money to be set aside from the council budget and used to modernise and refurbish the facility.

After discussions at the leading Labour group meeting, council leader Simon Burgess said the cash could be released from the council budget for this year, subject to approval by the full council at the budget meeting on February 23.

The money will pay for an independent expert to produce a report on how the shelter can be modernised and refurbished, as well as for architect's plans.

The council would like to see the shelter offer residents more privacy and more constructive help on how to turn their lives around rather than acting as an emergency facility.

Coun Burgess said St Patrick's would have to find funds for the conversion work itself. The council would need to see the results of the report before giving any commitment to funding the shelter in the future.