A COUNCIL has voted to stop searching for a new site for a controversial bail hostel which houses the most serious offenders.

Tory councillors voted to axe £48,000 of funding that had been allocated to find a new site for the Felmores Bail Hostel during a meeting of Basildon Council’s policy oversight and scrutiny committee,

The hostel, in Felmores, Pitsea, is used to exclusively house high-risk offenders who have committed the most serious crimes including convicted murderers, rapists and paedophiles.

Campaigners have spent years calling for the bail hostel to be moved away from two nearby schools, Northlands Park, and a densely populated residential estate.

But Conservative councillors used their majority in the committee to vote that the funding to find a new site and relocate the hostel be moved back into council reserves.

Tory councillor Andrew Schrader said: “I think we can all agree that it’s not an ideal location for that kind of facility, but I do think that this is a pretty futile exercise.

“I think we can still have the aspiration of moving the site if a suitable alternative location becomes available, without exhausting £1,900 a pop.”

The council has been spending the money on letting agents.

Safety concerns were raised about the hostel after a spate of incidents took place, including the rape of a woman in Northlands Park by an inmate in 2006.

In 2011, an inmate was returned to prison after sexually abusing a seven-year-old boy.

Labour leader and ward councillor for Pitsea north west Gavin Callaghan said Conservatives were “turning their backs” on Felmores residents.

He told the committee: “What kind of message are we sending to the Felmores community tonight?

“That we are, as a council, prepared to spend money on hanging baskets in Billericay, but we are not prepared to spend money on taking out of Felmores rapists, murderers and paedophiles. That’s a pretty shocking indictment of this council.”

One campaigner, who asked not to be named, said: “I must have signed countless petitions to get it moved and this is just so disappointing to hear. They obviously don’t care about the children in the area.

“I don’t know what else can be done. If they’re not going to provide funding to look for a new site, it’s obviously never going to happen.”