SOUTHEND’S probation officers have admitted they do not know where many of the offenders under their supervision are living.

Residents at the Milton Neighbourhood Action Panel had demanded to know how many former criminals being monitored by the probation service were living in Milton ward in the centre of Southend.

Carolyn Butlin, offender manager at Southend, told the meeting the probation service is responsible for 1,500 offenders in Southend, but could not say where they lived.

She said: “It’s very difficult for us to produce statistics because Milton ward is a very small part of the area we serve.”

She said many offenders regularly moved addressses and some stay at hostels run by Nacro – the National Association for the Rehabilitation of Offenders across the borough and into Castle Point.

Others stay at the Rosemead Project, in Hastings Road, Stanier House, in Stanier Close, and the Harp homeless shelter in Valkyrie Road, she added.

Ms Butlin said officers speak to police to assess whether an address is suitable if offenders are subject to an order which requires supervision by the probation service.

Officers look at a range of factors and ask whether the area is known for drug dealing, or if there are any victims living nearby.

Freddie Dawkins, co-ordinator of the Milton ward community group, said many houses used by offenders were the subject of repeated calls to the police.

PC Michelle Bond, neighbourhood constable for Milton, said shift officers did not have enough time to contact probation because of pressures of the job. Instead, she advised people to speak to her or one of the other neighbourhood constables.

Paul Brown, housing liaison officer for the probation service in Southend, said offenders were no longer staying at two houses in Palmerston Road – including one where a man died on January 4.

He said “There are no current offenders in those two properties. Whether there’s anyone who has previously been an offender I don’t know, but we haven’t placed anybody in those properties for an awful long time because the landlord will not take referrals from us.”