A PLAN to relocate a rehabilitation centre for young offenders from Okehampton Camp to Highampton has created controversy in the small village.

The Centre for Adolescent Rehabilitation (C-FAR) is proposing to turn Burdon Grange Nursing Home into a residential centre for young offenders but the move has met opposition from local residents, who were due to voice their concerns at a public meeting to be held as the Times went to press.

Opponents say the proposed site is 'totally unsuitable' and the centre would completely change the village.

But C-FAR is asking people to look at its track record in Okehampton and to see the centre as a positive thing for the area.

'What C-FAR is doing is perfectly laudable but the whole idea of putting this young offenders' settlement slap bang in the middle of a tiny community is wrong,' said resident David Richards, whose property neighbours Burdon Grange.

'At Okehampton Camp the situation is ideal for what is required because it is is away from the community, but I understand the lease runs out soon. If this plan goes ahead it would bring a complete cultural revolution to the area — we would be forced to have to lock up everything because young offenders will be living in our midst.'

Mr Richards said up to 80 young offenders could be living in Highampton and there were many elderly people living on their own who were 'petrified' of what was happening.

C-FAR does not have to gain planning permission to run a rehabilitation centre because the property has been operating as a residential home since 1979 and comes under the same planning category.

Mr Richards said it was not right that local people would not be able to protest to the application which would be decided by a legal ruling.

Jo France, who also lives within close proximity of Burdon Grange, said no-one would want to come and live in Highampton and people would not want to bring their children to the local school if they knew there was a young offenders centre nearby.

'I realise people have to be rehabilitated — but with the best intentions in the whole world people do re-offend and this could be disastrous for our village.'

But the driving force behind C-FAR, Lt Col Trevor Philpott, a former Royal Marine, said much of the information that had been circulated around Highampton was not based on fact or substance.

He said: 'We always invite people to come and see what we do before they make a judgement.

'It is important they see the benefits of the programme and what has been achieved so far.'

For a year, C-FAR has been running intensive ten-week residential courses for groups of young people aged 18 to 24 promoting personal development and empowerment.

Mr Philpott said the majority of trainees at C-FAR had resorted to crime to fund drug and alcohol addiction or had experienced an under-privileged, distressing childhood. They did not take anyone who had a sex-offending background.

The aim of the charity, which has won support from Ministers of State Paul Boateng and Andrew Smith and the Director of the Prison Service Martin Narey, is to return young men to society — paying taxes and living fulfilled lives.

Mr Philpott said 65 per cent of trainees completed the programme and ended up in full-time work.

'At the moment, there is a 78 per cent chance of a 19-year-old reoffending when they come out of prison,' he said. 'These people are committing crimes in the community but our young men are not doing that — they are going back into society motivated and determined to change their lives.'

He said the level of accommodation at Okehampton Camp was not ideal but, in contrast, Burdon Grange, which has been on the market for two years, would provide the perfect environment in which to run the programme.

He added that involvement in the community was very much a part of C-FAR's aims and this had worked to great advantage in Okehampton. The centre had also linked with a local firm to provide computer training.

Sergeant Brendon Brookshaw at Okehampton said he had been very impressed with the set-up at C-FAR and there had been no increase in crime in the Okehampton area as a result.

'For many of the trainees, it is the first time in their lives that someone had demanded something of them and they have pushed themselves,' he said. 'These people are there because they want to change and the whole idea is not to lock them up or segregate them.'

Sgt Brookshaw said there had only ever been one incident in Okehampton involving trainees from C-FAR and they had immediately been sent back to prison.

'C-FAR has always been up front about everything and in that case we were told where these persons were heading so we could deal with it straight away,' he said.