A meeting took place last night to try and solve the recent dispute over 'halfway houses' in Sandy.

The issue has been boiling over ever since angry residents crammed into a council meeting last month claiming that an increase in supported accommodation – used to house and rehabilitate homeless people – has resulted in a spate of anti-social behaviour in the town.

So Sandy Town Council agreed to host a specific meeting on Wednesday for residents, representatives of Bedford Housing Link, Aldwyck Housing, the police and town, district and county councillors, in order to get to the bottom of the problem.

And Mayor Colin Osborne, who chaired the meeting, was upbeat about how things went.

He said: "The meeting went very well and the various groups were well represented. Aldwyck Housing will be putting an action plan into place starting with the introduction of a night warden, who will be on duty in the evenings and can be contacted if there are any problems.

"The residents were especially concerned that they weren't being listened to and there was a lack of communication, but all the parties have now exchanged contact details so hopefully that won't now be too much of a problem."

At a council meeting on April 7, residents of the Friars Walk, Sandon Close area of Sandy complained of burglaries and intimidating behaviour from the people living in the supported accommodation, as well as suggesting that police 'don't react' when a crime is reported.

Mr Osborne added: "I am pretty sure that there will be no additional halfway houses in Sandy, but one of the reasons there are so many here is because of the cost of housing. But the council will be willing to host another meeting in the future if needed."

The problems, however, appear to be far from over. An anonymous College Road resident told The Chronicle: "The house right next door to us is a halfway house, and they often play loud music at 2am. I'd really like to go round there and give them a bashing."