Controversial plans to extend a town centre bail hostel have been withdrawn by the Ministry of Justice.

The proposal to increase the number of ex-offenders housed at Fleming House in Maidstone drew fierce opposition from people living nearby, who feared an increase in crime and anti-social behaviour.

Currently the facility in Tonbridge Road - officially know as an 'approved premises' - currently has room to house 31 occupants and is run by the National Probation Service on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

The application to Maidstone Borough Council proposed an extension of accommodation to provide room for a further 11 ex-offenders.

However last week it emerged Kent Police had added its voice to the chorus of opposition to the plans.

Cllr Jonathan Purle, who was a vocal critic of the proposed extension, said: "It's been a short but vigorous campaign so far and I'm pleased to say that it's the first round to us. But we'll have to see whether they choose to come back for more.

"What the local residents really need now is not another planning application or efforts to nobble the local police into withdrawing their objection, but a meaningful plan from the Ministry of Justice to reduce the harm being caused by the ongoing use of Fleming House as Kent's only 'approved premises'.

"It cannot be right that of all the places in Kent, it's people in our part of Maidstone who have to put up with the nuisance and crime emanating from this place.

"It has to be obvious that if you take high-risk offenders from across the region and release them here, without adequate supervision, there is going to be trouble for local people.

"We need a tighter regime with more staff or, if they really need larger premises as they claim, the facility moved to a different part of Kent, perhaps with proper dispersal."

The family of a man at the centre of a murder investigation are among those to have expressed their opposition to plans.

Jason Orwin died after being attacked in Bower Place, Maidstone, in July.

Mr Orwin’s mother, a neighbour of the facility, wrote: "It is a national disgrace that these offenders are mixing with our children. There is a primary school at the end of Bower Lane."

According to the Probation Service, emergency services are regularly called to the town centre hostel, which houses violent and sexual offenders.

Although no detailed data has been released, documents submitted in support of plans to extend Fleming House reveal that emergency services are called to the site "less than once a fortnight".

The main reason emergency services would be called is to support with the recall of residents to prison.

Last month Christopher Hatcher, who was staying at Fleming House after release following at attack on a woman in Hythe, was jailed once more after attacking a 19-year-old woman in Bower Place while in breach of his curfew at the hostel.

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