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Estate agents asked to look for homes for ex-prisoners

10:30am Wednesday 4th July 2007

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Estate agents in Pembroke Dock have received letters from a company helping to rehouse ex-prisoners, asking for their assistance in finding suitable properties, the Western Telegraph has learned.

The letter, from a company called ClearSprings Management, is asking agents to put forward any three, four and five bedroom homes currently available in the area.

The houses are required for use as supported accommodation by the company, on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

The company provides safe accommodation in community settings for those leaving prison, on bail, or on the Home Detention Curfew scheme.

The accommodation will allow the appropriate use of bail for low risk, adult defendants in custody who cannot provide a current address or could not be bailed without support.

ClearSprings state: "Through a robust programme of individually designed support with effective housing management, we aim to give people leaving prison the best possible chance of sustained independence."

Members of the community may be worried about the idea of ex-convicts living nearby but ClearSprings assures them the process of rehousing is transparent and the public will be consulted wherever possible.

The firm says it has provided accommodation and support to more than 45,000 vulnerable people over the past seven years but it is still unknown how many will be rehoused to Pembrokeshire.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman wanted to reassure the public that the rehousing scheme had nothing to do with prisoners currently being released 18 days before the end of their sentences.

No prisoners with a history of sexual offending would be suitable for the scheme, nor those with violent and racial convictions, the ministry added.

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Your Say YourWestern Telegraph

carol bateman, pembrokedock says...
10:43am Wed 4 Jul 07

To the estate agents that have been asked to look homes for ex convicts, please please do not respond to.this or they will think that it,so ok to house ex convict here.If they are not sex offenders, violent or racist! .Well thank you very much,but we the people of Pembrokeshire can also do without, importing drug dealers burglars shop lifters car thieves drug addicts pickpockets prostitutes and the list goes on and on and the clean up cost will fall back on the law abiding citizens in the area of Pembrokeshire, I have lived in Bristol, these rehomed convicts are all over in the city and they are like a crime wave in what ever area they are in, please do not feel sorry for them.The rent money you will receive will be coming out off you own pockets.I have a question will all the funding to keep all these ex convicts be coming from local council a?like rent,spending money that come under living allowance etc.etc.if so at means the local people will not only have to pay to keep them, we will have to count the cost of clean up (paying for policing social services insurance premiums etc.etc.) please think of the consequences before you say yes .

yours sincerly mrs bateman pembroke dock.

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Becky Winn-Jones, Haverfordwest says...
11:48am Wed 4 Jul 07

What about the people who have worked hard all their lives and liveed in Pembrokeshire who are finding it hard to find property? My husband and I have been looking for property for the last 3 months and have had very little luck. Any properties we have found have been far to expensive, plus you have a ridiculous fee to pay estate agents. What about looking after us first!!

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David Bentley-Miller, Swansea says...
8:18am Thu 5 Jul 07

Well here we go again! another hand up the greasy pole for the perpetrators of crime, the feral and the feckless! When is someone going to make a stand for the ordinary decent working man and woman, the pensioners and the children who do not break the law? Lets stop the excuses and the excuse making social worker mentality. Its time society stood up and said no to these mealy mouthed liberals. Crime is wrong and should be punished not rewarded with houses and foreign trips!

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Steve, Birmingham says...
10:16am Thu 5 Jul 07

Why should they be homed at a cost to law abiding memebers of any community. Lets look at it, they get a ten year sentence, they only serve 50% of it, the 50% they serve is in minimum 4 star hotel luxury. They have the luxury of every mod con going, and if the have them removed they bleat on about their human rights being violated, and then they are allowed to obtain legal aid to fight their case, and guess who pays the law abiding.

Only one question, WHERE IS THE PUNISHMENT ?

And now Penbrokeshire is being asked to house them in their area. Living in Birmingham I see the results of this "REHABILITATION", the police even have a name for them "NO GO AREAS", they really do exist.

No doubt there will be the usual bleeding heart libralist's who will come out with the "Well they have paid their price for their wrongdoing", well in answer to that, "It was their choice to commit the crime, the penalty stays for the rest of your life and you should bloody well have to struggle to earn the respect and help of the law abiding community"

Please people of Pembrokeshire for gods sake get up and fight this one with all of your might, if not you will end up destroying communities.

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R.J.Lewis, Trefin haverfordwest says...
1:02pm Thu 5 Jul 07


For a long time now I suspect that our esteemed council has provided -at a cost -accomodation for other city councils to "get rid" of their trouble makers.Can one of our councillors prove that I am wrong.Rumours at
the moment are rife in the Fishguard area that Birmingham city council have bought land at Maesgwynne to build house for THEIR undesirables.Have we one councillor that will stop these rumours,and before he/she does perhaps a check on one of the new estates might provide a surprise.We don't want these people in our county,provide houses for our own people first.

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Quetelet, Pembroke Dock says...
10:47am Fri 6 Jul 07

I don't know what the fuss is about, there are loads of active criminals living amongst the community as it is - pay a visit to the Magistrate's Court or the local news in your Western Telegraph, you'll see the same faces rolling in and out week after week!
I'll swap those lowlifes for rehabilitated ex-offenders that want to get on with their lives ANY DAY OF THE WEEK!

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Steve, Birmingham says...
3:45pm Fri 6 Jul 07

The point is that you will not be swopping anything, you will just be adding somebody else's lowlifes to your pile, and you will be paying for the luxury, dont assume that all of these people want to "get on with their lives" those that truly want to do that do so under their own steam, they want to remove themselves as far as possible from the stigma of what they have done, they do not want to move into a communal property that is known to contain ex-criminals.

As you seem to beleive that this is a storm in a teacup I trust you would be perfectly happy to have these "rehabilitated ex-offenders" moving in next door to you.

After living in Pembroke Dock for 35 years and still having close family living in the area I have seen Pembrokeshire towns run to the ground, in many cases they are simply ghost towns, now we seem to want allow areas from outside Pembrokeshire to fill these already depressed areas with imported problems, and then to add insult to injury Pembrokeshire will have to fund the care of these individuals.

I really do hope that "Quetelet" is in the minority, if not then there is little hope that that this area can ever recover and regenerate into the type of town I grew up in and have such fond memories of, and one day hoped to move back to.

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