Council anger as secret bail hostels are opened

10:54am Wednesday 20th August 2008

A PRIVATE company has opened two secret bail hostels in Bolton.

Six people — either convicts released early from jail or suspected criminals awaiting trial — are living in them.

The bosses in charge have refused to say where they are.

That has angered the leader of Bolton Council, Cllr Cliff Morris, who is concerned the operator, ClearSprings, has opened the hostels without consulting town hall chiefs.

He said: “We haven’t been consulted and I think we should have been. It is only fair to residents.”

Cllr Morris is making inquiries into why councillors have been kept in the dark.

He said: “I am angry. If these things are coming into our town it is only courtesy that we are consulted.

“It may be that we feel it’s a good thing and support it. It is in everyone’s interests that everybody is on board.”

ClearSprings, an Essex-based property management company, recently won a government contract to operate bail accommodation around the country and has so far opened about 160 hostels, including the two in Bolton and four in Leigh.

Because they are classed as privately rented homes they do not require planning permission if they are opened in property currently used as a home, meaning neighbours do not need to be consulted.

The Local Government Association has criticised ClearSprings, saying there has been a “shocking lack of consultation”, with local authorities being given little or no say over where they are located.

A ClearSprings spokesman confirmed there are two hostels in Bolton and four in Leigh, but refused to say where, claiming they were “private residences”.

ClearSprings stated that prisoners released early from jail are low risk offenders and will not be people with convictions for any sexual offence, cruelty to children or racially aggravated offence.

All bail hostel residents are on the Home Detention Curfew Scheme and will be fitted with electronic tags, the spokesman added.

The hostels are not classed as secure accommodation and are not staffed 24-hours a day, although they are visited regularly and the residents are obliged to sign a good-behaviour contract. If they break it, they are returned to prison or remanded in custody.

The Conservatives are calling on the Government to think again about the policy of opening more privately-run hostels.

Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Herbert said: “They must suspend this controversial policy and commit to a thorough review before any more of these properties are opened.”