PROBATION officers are considering a number of sites for a bail hostel near a North-East town where their first choice of site was rejected after massive public protests.

More than 150 protestors crammed into Chester-le-Street Civic Centre, County Durham, on Monday night to see councillors reject the proposals.

However, yesterday the County Durham Probation Service revealed that an appeal was being considered.

If the service decides not to appeal, it will re-examine a number of sites across County Durham, including ones in the Chester-le-Street area.

Councillors rejected the plans after officers said the fear of increased crime would lead to "a substantial and widely experienced reduction of the quality of lives".

The probation service would receive £1m from the Government to build the hostel. At present, there is no bail hostel in County Durham and the probation service has to use hostels is Northumbria and Teesside.

County Durham Probation Service assistant chief officer Keith Norman said: "We e considered this site to be in an ideal location. Chester-le-Street has good road links to other areas, as well as having other excellent transport links.

"Before we chose this site, we looked at a number of sites in County Durham, including others in the Chester-le-Street area, and we will look at those again. We will consider if we will appeal against this latest decision in the next two or three days."

Protestor Pam Tweddle said campaigners, who gathered more than 4,000 signatures of people opposing the scheme, would oppose any new application.