Fears about plans for a children's home are spreading.

Last week The Gazette reported that Marton Avenue residents want Middlesbrough Council to scrap plans for the children's home on their street.

The council wants to buy a house on Marton Avenue and use it as a long-term home for three children in local authority care. A project that's in conjunction with Five Rivers Housing Association

A local residents in Middlesbrough said "It is unacceptable, this has been done in an underhand way. Using already existing residential properties means they don't have to get planning permission."

Chairman of the Marton Community Council Frank Andrews said the area was seeing increasing problems from youngsters coming up from other parts of the town and "getting up to no good."

"And we have a lot of young families with children living here who are very concerned this home could bring further problems," he said.

The council told Marton residents at a public meeting last week that it was "not riding roughshod" over their views.

Commissioner for Social Care, Councillor Eddie Dryden, defended the plan, saying: "Children have rights as well."