A CHURCH was turned into a makeshift hostel after seven families with young children found themselves stranded after Southend Carnival on Saturday.

Clarence Road Baptist Church, in Clarence Road, Southend, became an impromptu refuge for the families after many mistakenly believed the last London-bound c2c train from Southend Central was at 12.20am.

It actually departed an hour earlier.

Some of the families made their way to the SOS Bus for help after being turned away from taking shelter at the train station.

Street pastor Del Thomas, who co-ordinated the effort to help the families, said he was “disgusted”

security staff had not used their discretion to allow the families to stay at the station.

He said: “We got a call to go to the SOS Bus at about 2am because there were two families who had missed the last train and didn’t knowwhat to do.

“They asked if there was anywhere they could go and we initially said no but, because they had children under the age of two, we didn’t feel we could leave them, so decided to stay with them until the trains started up again.

“We then heard there were two other families outside the station so left them with the SOS Bus while we looked around the top end of the High Street, where we found a young lady with two young children, one aged 15 months and the other three years old, who were just wandering around.

“About ten minutes after we got back to the SOS Bus, another woman showed up and said there were another three families outside a fish and chip shop, so we ended up with seven families, all with young children.

“We took all of them in at the church, and I’m glad we did, because a man was seriously hurt in an attack outside the fish and chip shop about ten minutes later – which the children would have witnessed.

“I’m really disgusted that the station management was going to leave young children out on the street, though, especially on a Saturday when there are drunks about.”

In response, c2c chief executive Julian Drury said: “Given that there were families stranded after the last train at Southend Central, we shouldn’t have left them outside the station with nowhere safe to rest for the night.”

In a message to Mr Thomas, he added: “I am disappointed nobody used their discretion; and I am grateful to you and your team for helping them to find safe sleeping.

“This is definitely something we need to sort out for any future event.”