Concern has been expressed that a church-led organisation is planning to bus groups of homeless people into a tiny Wrexham chapel.

A meeting will be held at 7.30pm on Friday at the Methodist chapel in Colliery Road, Rhosddu, when details of the plan by Housing Justice Cymru will be given.

Three county councillors who also serve on Rhosddu Community Council have complained that Wrexham Council officers must have known about the pilot scheme before it leaked out two weeks ago.

Housing Justice Cymru runs several schemes in South Wales and if the plan in Wrexham this month is successful it will launch the scheme at three churches or chapels next winter.

The plan is to bus the homeless into the chapel at 8pm each night and collect them the following morning at 7.30am.

Two meetings of the chapel members have taken place with some voicing concern.

But Cllr Brenda Roberts, a member of the chapel, said: “The chapel is a very compassionate one and always looks after people.

"I don’t blame Wrexham Council because we have trouble with the homeless in the town because too many agencies who look after them are situated close together [in Rhosddu]".

At a meeting of Rhosddu Community Council chairman, County Cllr I David Bithell, of Stansty ward, said like the other councillors they had nothing against homeless people but he wanted the interests of residents including the nearby school (Plas Coch) and the residential home at Stansty to have full facts about the pilot.

He said at one chapel meeting it was stated that those bussed in would be from outside of Wrexham.

County Cllr Marc Jones, of Grosvenor ward, said it was difficult to make a decision about the scheme as there had been a complete lack of detail.

He said professionals who deal with the homeless struggled with them and he was concerned how volunteers would cope.

County Cllr Andy Williams, of Garden Village ward, said not all homeless people were bad but they all had problems one way or another and that had to be considered.

He said concerns had been aired because the plan had been kept secret.

Cllr Julie Smith said some people in Garden Village had known about the scheme for some time and people who wanted to volunteer to help had no experience of dealing with the homeless.