Ten Year Long Residence ILR or Work Permit's ILR

I am in a real dilemma regarding the right path for applying for ILR.

I had a student visa from 1998 - 2002 and I then got a work permit visa from 2002 - 2008.

I can apply for ILR under the work permit scheme any time now, but I have absences of 9 months in the last five years. I understand I should not have absences of more than 6 months. I can explain most of these absences as work related and I can get a letter from my employer.

I will have a total of ten years in the UK in September 2008 which would allow me to apply for ILR under the long residence scheme (I hope the student years will count). I understand that one is not supposed to have absences of more than 18 months in the ten year period. I only have around 11 months of absence in this ten year period.

Should I wait for September 2008 to apply for ILR under the long residence category or should I go ahead and submit my application now under the work permit category.

I have only one criminal conviction (drink driving - unspent) and I intend to show that I am of good character by proof of my charity work in the community and references.

While I think the drunk driving conviction is really going to hurt your naturalization chances, you might get through with it on ILR if you are lucky. The community work really isn't going to mitigate the conviction from an ILR point of view.
Between the two, if you had no conviction, I'd say apply for ILR despite the absences. Since you have a conviction, with the absences just gives them an additional reason to reject your application so you might as well wait until September.
It might be better for you to wait when your conviction is spent but I might be thinking that is more important for naturalization.