Police have raised crime fears over a planned hostel for the vulnerable and disadvantaged in Moulsham Street, Chelmsford.
The aim is to convert a former nursing home and doctors' surgery at the corner of Rothesay Avenue.
In public question time at Chelmsford Planning Committee attended by 130 residents on Tuesday, residents' spokesman John Goghlan said a council official admitted that the 12 residents could be sex offenders, drug and alcohol abusers, and thieves.
In a report to the committee submitted the day before the meeting, police said a similar hostel in Thorrington, near Colchester experienced criminal damage, assault, theft and other offences.
"It will follow that crime and disorder will rise in the local area without any increase in policing if the hostel was run in a similar way to Thorrington," the police report said.
Council officials regard the police report as "raising serious material planning consideration in relation to crime and disorder."
The committee has deferred its decision so that management proposals for Moulsham can be compared with the hostel, Silverwoods, at Colchester, also said to be run by Moulsham applicant Kirkbank Properties.
Published Friday January 16, 2004
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