Fears aired over plans to house ex-inmates in Tasmanian town of Ellendale

THE Ellendale town hall was overflowing with concerned residents last night for a meeting about a home for ex-prisoners being bought in the area.

Elizabeth Coleman is part of a community group hoping to purchase the former Hayes Prison Farm from the State Government as a re-homing centre for ex-prisoners called Freedom Village

THE Ellendale town hall was overflowing with concerned residents last night for a meeting about a home for ex-prisoners being bought in the area.

The Freedom Centre, which already hosts former inmates at a small farm south of Hobart, is expanding into the small Derwent Valley township.

MORE: RESIDENTS RALLY OVER PLAN TO HOUSE EX-CONS IN COMMUNITY

The centre has been helping ex-prisoners reintegrate into society for more than a decade.

Resident Wayne Booth, who organised last night’s meeting, said he would write to the centre’s board to ask it to reconsider its proposal.

“Our major concern is that these people will be using public transport and there is only one bus out of Ellendale and 99 per cent of the people on that bus are school kids,” he said.

“The rest of us are big enough and ugly enough to look after ourselves, but it’s all about the kids and their safety.”

Freedom Centre director Elizabeth Coleman said she attempted to answer residents’ questions, but believed they had not come to the meeting with an open mind.

“They had made up their minds beforehand that we should have had permission from the town before we bought a house there,” she said.

“It seemed to me a really purposeless effort because they don’t know us or the men, they don’t know anything about how wonderfully they’ve changed their lives. These men are no longer the people they think they are.”