A FRUSTRATED family has called on Colchester Council to hurry up with plans to rebuild crumbling homeless accommodation.

Colchester Council is in talks with a housing association it hopes will demolish Ascott House, in Lexden, and replace it with a new hostel for young mums with nowhere to go.

Michael Palmer and Kimberley Tait say the move cannot come soon enough because they are at their wits’ end after six months in a leaky chalet at the back of the run-down former hotel.

Kimberley, 24, has a son, Reece Clark, five, and is eight months pregnant.

She said: “We have had problems with damp, which is bad for Reece’s asthma, and the roof leaks.

“We were only supposed to be here for a few weeks and I am so fed up now – I’m about to drop and there’s no way I want to bring a baby back here.”

Ascott House and the ageing chalets behind are used as a last resort for people like Ms Tait and Mr Palmer, 27, who say they fled to Colchester from Harlow to escape her violent ex-partner.

The council’s aim is to hand over the site in London Road to the unnamed housing association, which would be able to access Government grants to put up a new main building with proper brick-built flats behind.

It was one of several emergency units which were deemed unfit for purpose and blacklisted in January 2008, but which 20 months later remain in use.

Council housing services manager Peter McDonagh said: “The plan is still to rebuild Ascott House, but we don’t have a date for this as we are in negotiations with a housing association at the moment.”