A Church of England vicar has joined a chorus of protest over plans to build a hostel for ex-offenders on a "Cinderella" Winchester estate.
The Revd Caroline Baston, vicar of All Saints' Church in Highcliffe, is opposed to plans for a hostel on a garage block site in Fivefields Road. The project, for six former prisoners, has triggered a tidal wave of protest. Residents are due to present a 350-signature petition to Winchester City Council's cabinet meeting on Monday.
They claim Highcliffe is a "Cinderella" estate, with only one bus shelter, no community centre, no post office, inadequate drainage and poorly-maintained roads. The last thing it needs is the hostel two minutes' walk from All Saints Primary School.
Eastleigh Housing Association wants to build the scheme on the garage site, sold-off by Winchester City Council. It would be run by Southampton-based Two Saints. Planners are due to consider the scheme in August.
Miss Baston, one of the first women to be ordained in the Winchester area, is backing residents who are opposing the plan. She is dismayed that Winchester City Council failed to tell people about the hostel when it organised a major community consultation exercise in Highcliffe and Stanmore last summer, costing £200,000. Miss Baston said: "We feel it has been cloak and daggers.
"In August, 2002, plans were being drawn up at the same time as the community consultation at which nothing was said. It was presented to us as a fait accompli in March this year."
The cleric said the council had not taken seriously the concerns of the community. Two alleged paedophiles, who lived opposite the proposed hostel in Fivefields Road, committed suicide on the day they were to supposed to stand trial at Winchester Crown Court.
Families of those concerned still live on the close-knit estate of about 500 households.
Miss Baston said she would be worried for the safety of ex-offenders if the scheme went ahead. Eastleigh Housing Association and Two Saints say the hostel is not supposed to be for sex offenders, but that does not reassure residents.
"There is a real anxiety here which the council has not bothered to find out about," said Miss Baston. Labour city councillor, Chris Pines, said he and his colleague, Ann Craig, ward members for Highcliffe, were also opposed.
Mr Pines said: "There is a lot of feeling on the estate about the attacks on children years ago and the perception is that we are going to get something like that again and they are very worried."
He added: "Highcliffe is a Cinderella estate in that the city council for years and years has not done anything for it."
The Highcliffe hostel was one of four supported housing schemes originally proposed for the Winchester area. Two were dropped in the early stages and the third, a mother and baby hostel in Thurmond Crescent, Stanmore, was axed because of potential parking problems.
A council spokesman said: "This site is still going through the planning process. It is council policy that consultation take place with those in the immediate vicinity of any proposed development and not the area as a whole, unlike the community planning exercise, which involves everybody."
He said there was "never any intention to mislead or deceive anyone", adding that the search for possible sites was a separate exercise to the community consultation exercise.
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