CAMPAIGNERS say they are the closest they have ever been to having the controversial Felmores bail hostel moved.

Hundreds of people living near Felmores bail hostel in Basildon were planning to march through the area on Saturday.

However, it has been called off after Basildon councillors received offical letters from probation service officials.

It confirmed the service would consider moving the hostel elsewhere, if a suitable alternative location can be found.

The probation service previously wrote to council leaders across the county to discuss finding a new home for the hostel.

Campaign leader Leanne Clark, 40, of Delvins, Pitsea, said the residents were relieved action was finally being taken.

She said: “We’re happy the probation service is speaking to the councils about looking for other suitable premises.

“It’s made all our hard work worthwhile because they’re listening to us, so we’re really relieved.

“We don’t want to hold the protest now things are moving, because we don’t want to rock the boat while things are going our way.”

Basildon councillor Andrew Baggott, who received the most recent letter from the Essex Probation Service, said: “There are two positives to this. One is that at least they are not digging their heels in over this.

“Secondly, it seems to me as if the fact they are willing to locate is an admission the hostel is in the wrong place.”

Mum-of-seven Suzanne Amor, 54, who has lived at her home in Loxford for 30 years, welcomed the latest developments.

She said: “This is a step in the right direction.

“The probation service would never admit before this hostel should not be there, let alone find somewhere else.

“I’ve lived here 30 years and this is the closest we have got in those 30 years to getting rid of the bail hostel.”

The campaign to have the hostel moved reignited earlier this year.

It restarted after one of the inmates living there – 24-year-old Dean Freeman – sexually assaulted a seven-year-old boy in Basildon town centre in April. The convicted paedophile was supposed to be being monitored by police officers and probation officials when he carried out the attack.

Talks between campaigners and the probation service stalled last month after the service, responding to criticism about its management of Freeman, suggested anyone in the town could have carried out the attack on the young boy.

A spokesman for the Essex Probation Service said he had “nothing to further to add” about the latest developments.