A MENTAL health unit for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorders is set to be built next door to a primary school.

Developer Cubfield Ltd has successfully appealed for permission to build the facility on the Tylers Site in Brent Way, Dartford, which backs onto Gateway Primary School in Milestone Road.

Dartford Council had rejected the planning application for the unit, but an inspector for the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has now overturned that decision.

The council had refused the plans for the low security unit after hundreds of parents expressed fears patients would pose a threat to children at the nearby primary school.

However, in a report on his decision, the inspector disagreed, saying only “patients who pose little or no increased risk to the public would be admitted”.

He added: “A level of security appropriate to their needs would be provided, through both physical means and the regime of professional treatment and management.”

The inspector also dismissed fears patients fleeing from the unit, which will have four wards with a total of around 60 bedrooms, would be a menace to the local community.

He wrote: “In the event an absconding patient lingered in the immediate area, it seems to me the chances are they would be quickly observed and, if necessary, apprehended.”

He added: “Perhaps the most emotive concern for local residents, however, is that paedophiles would emanate from the facility to prey upon children attending the adjacent primary school.”

But, after saying convicted sexual offenders would not be treated at the unit, he concluded the mentally ill “do not have the resourcefulness and cunning required to ensnare children in illicit sexual activities”.

When Cubfield first announced plans for the unit, local residents set up a committee to fight the scheme and gathered more than 200 signatures on a petition against the unit.

Committee member Gary Reynolds, of Brent Close, said: “We’re all absolutely furious the unit is now going to be built. Children should be able to feel safe in their school and now they won’t.”

The 46-year-old said patients have escaped units in the past to commit crimes, such as Stephen James Wilkinson stabbing 12-year-old Nikki Conroy to death at her school in Middlesbrough in 1994.

Father-of-three Mr Reynolds said: “Cubfield cannot guarantee us that someone will not get out of that unit and hurt a child.”

The residents committee had also opposed the unit because it will be in an air quality management zone, and they fear the poor air quality will cause patients to suffer.

However, the inspector said he is confident the emissions from the nearby motorway will be reduced within a few years.

Cubfield Ltd was unavailable for comment.