Bedsits could be targeted under the new scheme

Under Colin Jones' scheme bedsit tenants could be evicted from their accommodation in an area of Rhyl.

The community campaigner will outline his scheme to create a new housing association and drastically reduce the number of houses split into bedsits in the resort at a public meeting on Friday.

However, Rhyl social worker Hannah Rowan said the scheme would leave underprivileged people with nowhere to live.

At the moment there are around 400 houses divided up for multiple use in Rhyl's West End housing about 2,000 people.

"The bedsits are sitting here as a magnet for people coming in from other parts of north Wales and further afield, and they're people with problems," said Mr Jones.

The long-settled residents around here are just fed up with it. They can't go out at night anymore Colin Jones

"They're coming in to cheap rented furnished accommodation because that's the only thing they can afford.

"They're coming in with serious alcohol and drug problems and behavioural problems of various kinds.

"The message going out from Rhyl is it's easy to find accommodation here, it's a good place to be unemployed, drugs are easy to get, you don't get a lot of hassle from the police so we're attracting the wrong type of people."

In November 2002 thousands of pounds was handed over to try to stem the flow of drugs into the area.

A total of �88,000 will be spent by the Welsh Assembly on policing the drugs problem - providing money for surveillance equipment, mobile CCTV units and youth diversion projects.

Residents anger

Mr Jones wants to buy up to 10% of the houses over five years and replace them with affordable housing for low income families.

"I'd be interested to know where he expected those people to go, there would be a huge knock-on effect," said Hannah Rowan from the West Rhyl Young People's Project.

"There are issues and problems but whether [Mr Jones' proposal] is a solution I'm not sure."

The idea has been supported in principle by the the town's Acting Chief Inspector for North Wales Police Roland Schwartz.

He says cutting the number of bedsits would also cut the amount of crime in Rhyl.

Mr Jones has estimated that the first five years of the scheme would cost around �5m.

He is hoping to receive European Funding to set the scheme in motion.

"I feel angry in a way that Rhyl has got itself such a bad name, when the town as a whole is not a bad place to live," he said.

"The long-settled residents around here are just fed up with it. They can't go out at night anymore."

However, not everybody is in favour of the project.

Mike Espley from the North Wales Private Landlord Association said that any new housing association would not make much of a difference and was not well thought out.