THURROCK Council will investigate allegations it is letting homeless people down.

Councillors and charities have criticised the authority’s housing department after a Gazette investigation revealed accusations of ‘gate-keeping’ - the illegal practice of refusing to assess and register homeless people.

One Ockendon resident said he was shocked when his 20-year old nephew, who was then working as a forklift driver, went to the council for help - only to be given a leaflet entitled How to Survive on the Street.

Alan Spong, 42, of Ravel Gardens, Aveley, said: “It’s absolutely disgusting how they treated my nephew.

"That the council has the audacity to tell him to sleep on a park bench.

“It’s wrong, there’s hostels – there must be somewhere for them to sleep.

"It’s not safe outside.”

Meanwhile, heartbroken relatives of a terminally ill man, who worked as an Ockendon hospital staff nurse for 35 years, told how he visited the housing office daily for a year without being helped.

John Merry, 55, has liver sclerosis and had a broken hip.

His sister, Pauline Merry, 64, of Corran Way, said he was “too proud” to admit he was homeless, instead saying he was sleeping on a friend’s sofa after splitting up with his wife.

She said he was a “lovely, very kind” man and she was “disgusted” the council could not point him to the right form to fill in.

Mrs Merry said: “It’s horrendous. They let him go down there and bid on the system every day for a year – and they just didn’t tell him that he had never registered on the system.

“He was beaten up a couple of times in the park in that time and had his money taken.”

Marie Claire, who has worked with Thurrock victims of domestic violence for the organisation Resurj, also expressed concerns.

She said: “It would be absolutely appalling if, in this day and age, people like victims of violence with young children are being turned away.”

Ex-CAB worker and Ukip shadow housing officer Cllr Luke Spillman, who said he had dealt with 500 homelessness cases in the past two years, said turning people away was “dangerous”.

He said: “There’s no excuse - they are systematically gate-keeping people. Everyone should be properly assessed to see whether they are homeless or not. The council has a duty to do that.

"People who are living in dangerous circumstances and people who are homeless are not getting assessed.”

Council Leader Rob Gledhill said the council would now be conducting an investigation.

He said: “These are very serious complaints and I’m speaking to officers urgently, although we cannot comment on individual cases.

“I expect a thorough investigation to take place to find out what has happened and whether these are isolated incidents or it is more widespread or, in fact, officers have followed proper procedure.

“People facing homelessness are often in complex situations. We have an obligation in ensuring our information is presented fairly, accurately and in a way that can be easily understood when people are, at times, very stressed.”