A BAIL hostel plan for Clayton Street, Blackburn, will once again be put before councillors.

The plan has already been approved in principle despite a furious residents' campaign opposing the scheme when it was discovered that sex offenders could be housed at the hostel.

Residents claim the hostel will add to the long list of problems in the area which is known as a red light district and a centre for the illegal drugs trade.

Objectors wrote to Jack Straw and lobbied councillors to try to block the project.

But councillors rubber-stamped the proposal and now they have been presented with a more detailed plan about what the hostel will consist of.

The Galligreaves District Community Association was one of the organisations at the centre of the residents' opposition to the hostel. Chairman Winifred Simpson said: "People are still very much against the idea because we feel we have enough of that type of thing in this area.

"But when we had a letter from Jack Straw saying the bail hostel would be going ahead we didn't do much more with regard to the situation."

Andrew Dineen, who is on the management committee of the West End Youth Club said: "We are still vehemently opposed to the concept of a hostel in that location because of its proximity to places which house children.

"We have been led to believe that we may have a good case should we choose to go to judicial review.

"But unless we find a Father Christmas type figure there is no way we would be able to afford that."

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