CALLS for a former library to be transformed into a "super hostel" to house homeless people across Southend have been branded “totally inappropriate”.

Delaware House, at the junction of Maplin Way and Delaware Road, in Shoebury, is being sold by Southend Council for £2.6million and has attracted interest from homes developers.

But during a meeting on Thursday night, Steven Wakefield, Independent councillor for Shoebury, suggested the site could be used as one large hostel to house homeless people in one place.

The suggestion sparked a series of concerns from other councillors about “concentrating” a large number of homeless people in one place.

Mr Wakefield said: “The Maplin Way site had a lot of work done on it, and it cost the council a lot of money replacing the doors and upgrading the site. We have lots of hostels scattered across the town. It would be a better idea to bring all the hostels to one site, apart from the women’s hostel.

“It would be more cost-effective to run that site with the staff, and then we can sell the existing hostel sites and get a better return. The people we have in other housing would have a place to go where we have staff to manage them.

“It would be a better way and we would get a return on our existing sites.”

At the meeting, James Moyies, Conservative councillor for West Shoebury, said he needed time “to recover from the suggestion of a super hostel in west Shoebury”.

After the meeting, he said: “It’s just completely inappropriate. The site is ideal for housing. It’s in the centre of a lot of housing along Delaware Road and Maplin Way. It’s not a good site for a super hostel to bring all the potential challenges of putting people into one condensed area in the middle of west Shoebury.”

Delaware House formerly housed a library on the first floor, and a blood test clinic on the ground floor, along with a nursery.

Anne Jones, councillor responsible for planning and housing, said: “Delivery of hostels does not sit solely within the council or South Essex Homes. And most of our hostels are with a provider who we discharge our homelessness responsibility to. Concentration would be a very contentious issue.”