FURIOUS residents have called for a public meeting over plans to rehouse patients from a medium secure unit just half a mile from their homes.

The neighbours in Mitton Road, Whalley, fear they may be at risk from plans to move the 12 patients from the Chestnut Drive unit at Calderstones Hospital into the community.

The Calderstones NHS Trust aims to convert two former staff houses, Queen Mary's Terrace and Bridge Terrace, both in Mitton Road, for clinical use.

The two six-bedroomed homes will be used to accommodate patients awaiting release into the community.

The first house is expected to be up and running within three months with a second to follow.

Hospital bosses claim the scheme will give patients the opportunity of living away from the main core of the hospital in a more "home-like atmosphere" but have admitted that the plan could raise hundreds of thousands of pounds with new patients filling the 12 places at the Chestnut Drive unit.

But residents today called for a public meeting so they can vent their anger.

Jean Hanson, who has lived in Mitton Road for 22 years and worked at Calderstones until six years ago, said: "I am concerned about who they are going to put in these houses. Staff at the hospital have told us we ought to be concerned, but bosses tell us the patients will be no risk. But if they are no risk why were they in Chestnut Drive in the first place? "Children play in this street and I know Chestnut Drive houses people convicted of serious offences, such as child abuse and rape.

"How can these patients be watched 24 hours a day when they are living in the community? We are very concerned about this scheme."

Whalley councillor Joyce Holgate said she would be seeking cast-iron assurances that villagers would not be put at risk.

She said: "I have grave concerns. Are these patients going to include former sex offenders and people who have committed violent crimes? I don't want to see these patients just turfed out into the street.

"I want to know that the residents of Whalley aren't being put in any danger."

Hospital bosses have said, if the scheme proves successful, further houses from the two terraces could be turned over to patients.

Calderstones NHS Trust chief executive Russ Pearce said: "We have been resettling people from Calderstones Hospital in the community for some years now and about 30 residents of Chestnut Drive are currently waiting to be resettled.

"Some of them may have committed relatively minor offences years and years ago, but they will always be tarred with the fact that they spent time in a medium secure unit.

"This situation has blown out of all proportion. The public isn't in any danger. Obviously people are concerned, but we just wouldn't take a risk with their safety."

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