A FORMER care home that will soon open as a homeless hostel will attract “every Tom, Dick, Harry, Mary and Jane” a councillor has claimed.

Permission to use the former Severn View Care Home as accommodation for up to 17 single homeless people was granted in July last year despite opposition from some nearby residents in the leafy part of Chepstow and the town council.

Ian Bakewell, Monmouthshire County Council’s housing manager, said his department is “really excited” the hostel, where the council will also provide housing support on site to help people move from temporary accommodation to a home of their own, will soon be brought into use.

He also said the council would have preferred to provide round the clock housing support but for out of hours and overnight will rely on security staff.

Llanelly Hill councilllor Simon Howarth, asked, at the council’s place scrutiny committee, if there are any plans for a similar facility in the north of Monmouthshire.

He said: “It will be a great place and a great location for that area but you can’t ship anybody in Abergavenny up to Severn View. It would be virtually immoral to do that to anyone who’d not want to go.”

But he also said he feared it could prove an attraction for people from outside Monmouthshire.

The independent councillor said: “We’ve all had issues where residents have said ‘someone has jumped the queue’. You will have every Tom, Dick, Harry, Mary and Jane wanting to get into Severn View whether they come from Plymouth or Gloucester. We’ve got to make sure it is for the people that meet the Monmouthshire criteria.”

Councillor Sarah Burch, the Labour cabinet member responsible for housing, said: “I’m not sure Severn View will be a draw for people.”

She said the council is “bound by legislation” and said it is responsible for housing people “with a local connection to Monmouthshire”.

The Cantref member said: “In some cases we have had people presenting as homeless who don’t have a local connection and we advise them to report to their home authority.”

Mr Bakewell said temporary accommodation is allocated on a “first come first serve basis” but the council looks to house people as close to their home area as possible but that isn’t always possible.

He said the council is looking for properties to provide temporary accommodation in Monmouth and Abergavenny and it often has to house people away from Abergavenny and gives priority for people in work and also seeks to move people back to their home areas.

The housing manager said providing 24 hours housing support at Severn View wouldn’t be cheap.

Goetre Fawr member Jan Butler, asked if the council has cross border arrangements for providing housing as people from New Inn, Trevethin and Blaenavon in Torfaen will often have family connections in her ward and said the same could be true of people living in Herefordshire or the Forest of Dean with Monmouth.