FOUR patients from one of the UK's highest security mental hospitals could be coming to live in a village near Newport, the Argus has learned.

Independent Community Living hopes to turn a number of buildings in Langstone into a nursing home.

And it has identified the four elderly men from the high security unit of the Rampton Special Hospital in Nottinghamshire as being among the first to move in.

The group of men are all on orders under the Mental Health Act, either placed on them through the courts or sectioned straight from the community.

All the potential inmates from Rampton would initially be over 75, but the NHS definition of elderly is over 50, or over 45 in some cases.

ICL and Rampton Hospital claim the potential residents would not pose a risk to the community.

But apart from an 'airlock' system in the home there would just be a two-metre-high fence around the building.

The home, at Llanbedr Court, off Chepstow Road, would be close to Langstone Junior and Infants School and two nurseries, and residents are fearful for both their own safety and that of their children.

And the firm is refusing to divulge what criminal offences some of the potential residents may have committed.

Langstone councillor David Atwell said: "We were assured the facility would not take people from prison, but the reason some of these people are not being kept in prison is by virtue of their mental state.

"They could still have committed a serious crime to be placed in this type of care.

"They've identified eight elderly men over 75, but what happens when they go? Who will replace them?

"They've defined elderly people as over 50 years of age, and said they may consider people of 45 if it's considered appropriate.

"I'm all for getting people into care within the community, but you've got to draw the line and look at what's in the area - a school and two nurseries."

A spokesman for ICL told the Argus: "These are elderly people who shouldn't be at Rampton, anyway, they are only there as a result of hospital mergers.

"The ones we are talking about are particularly elderly; one is in his 80s, one is on a Zimmer frame and one is in a wheelchair.

"We are a well-established company that works in properties across South Wales and employs specialist staff to care for these people at a very high level."

A Rampton spokeswoman said the transfer of patients was part of moves to get people who no longer require such high security care out of special hospitals.

"ICL has homes all across the country and we've worked with them in the past to place other appropriate patients in their homes. There will be no way we would move people from high security to lesser security unless they have been properly assessed.

"We have had very successful placements in other parts of the community."

ICL has applied to Newport council for planning permission for the nursing home, but the planning committee deferred making a decision to see if they can impose a condition limiting the type of people who might live there.