A BAIL hostel for high-risk criminals on the Felmores Estate can be moved outside Basildon – or even Essex.

The Ministry of Justice has agreed the hostel, in Littlebury Green, which houses sex offenders, can be moved to a business park or even outside the county, the Echo can reveal.

Campaigners, who fear the offenders are too close to homes and schoolchildren, are delighted the 28-bedroom hostel could close after an eight-year battle.

In a letter to Stephen Metcalfe, MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, Prisons Minister Andrew Selous said: “Felmores does not only serve Basildon district, but was the approved premises for the whole of Essex when it was under a separate probation trust.

“We would therefore be equally happy with a site in Basildon or in any other district of Essex.

“With the change from trusts to divisions, covering a wider area, it might be possible to consider sites near to Essex rather than within it, although the need to resettle offenders in their home areas means that they could not be too far away.”

The Government will buy the new premises and fund any conversion, but Basildon Council must identify the site.

The cost of the new facility would have to be mainly met by the sale of the Felmores hostel, which houses offenders from Kent, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire as well as Essex.

The new property could be on a business park, but would need good transport links into the evening and the cost of converting it to a residential unit would have to be reasonable, Mr Selous said.

The Ministry of Justice has agreed to provide a valuation of the Felmores property and its running costs to aid the council.

Gavin Callaghan, Labour councillor for Pitsea North West, has proposed a council motion calling on the authority to continue its nowwider search for an alternative site and meet the Probation Service to discuss the move.

Mr Callaghan, who is also Labour candidate for Basildon and Billericay, said: “It’s about saying to the people of Felmores that not only do we recognise that it is an unsuitable location, but also that the people of Basildon and Felmores have had their fair share of being dumped on.

“After an eight-year campaign we can now look beyond the Essex border to house people who are often not from Essex.”