Time to protest!

Jan 8 2009 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

RESIDENTS and councillors will not be consulted on plans to build bail hostels in their neighbourhoods, a leaked memo reveals.

Ministers have a deal with private firm ClearSprings to run 200 hostels for bailed offenders, those released on home curfew with electronic tags and alleged offenders awaiting trial.

The memo advises local authorities that councillors and residents will not be notified of hostel plans until they have been approved and councils have no rights to object unless they breach planning rules.

ClearSprings has opened, or is planning to open hostels in Huddersfield and Batley, among other towns.

The lack of public consultation is a deplorable state of affairs in an age when we are supposed to have complete transparency.

The decision is certain to cause aggravation and conflict with neighbours who suddenly find a bail hostel in their midst.

Even worse is the suggestion that these hostels will have few, if any, staff and that neighbours will self-police them by means of a 24-hour contact number being made available in case of problems.

It makes you wonder exactly what ClearSprings will be doing for the taxpayers’ money they receive from the Government.

While the Ministry of Justice says the protocol has been withdrawn, there is every chance that it will come back unless the full forces of protest are marshalled.

It is an atrociously bad idea and completely unacceptable.