Residents and traders say people living in a homeless hostel in Speedwell are making their lives a misery.

Some neighbours of the Longhills Hostel in Whitefield Road say the area was largely peaceful for 30 years before the complex opened to house people with drug and alcohol problems.

They claim supervisors at the hostel do not have control over the tenants, whom they say they have seen drinking alcohol early in the morning, begging for money, making threats and shouting abuse.

One shopkeeper in Lodge Causeway, Fishponds, believes tenants at the 26-bed hostel are responsible for an increase in shoplifting and anti-social behaviour in the shopping street.

Ivan Longley, 65, who runs Undercut butchers with his wife Maggie, 55, said he tackled a shoplifter taking a tray of chicken legs from his shop and was confident the culprit was a resident of the hostel.

He said: "They are a nuisance and are begging every day of the week. We have no idea who is looking after them. We don't know why they are being allowed to go back to their accommodation with booze.

"Ever since the hostel has been open, people have been going up and down the street shouting and the language is disgusting. They always have cans or bottles in their hands.

"It doesn't bother us much but we are more worried for the elderly residents, who can be frightened by it."

Mr Longley said a tenant of the hostel was recently involved in trouble at a bakery shop across the road in Lodge Causeway and said the police were called in. He said the same man had also intimidated an elderly lady waiting for a bus.

One resident of Whitefield Road, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, said he saw a drunk hostel tenant taken by ambulance a few hundred metres from Lodge Causeway back to his accommodation because he was unable to stand up.

He said: "Police cars and ambulances are here regularly. The other day we were woken at 2am and noticed a man throwing himself out of the window of one of the rooms in the hostel and the staff were having to drag him back in.

"We've seen cars suspiciously stopping at the hostel and women who look like prostitutes coming and going. We've even seen people either having sex or simulating it outside the front of the hostel. I don't know why they hang around the front intimidating people at the bus stop when they have a garden of their own at the back.

"They also dump their rubbish in the park nearby and are always drinking alcohol."

Protesters were furious when plans to create the hostel were given the go-ahead in 2006. More than 1,000 people signed a petition opposing it.

Gary Kingman, manager at Longhills, which is run by the English Churches Housing Group (ECHG), said no formal complaints had been madel.

He said: "Firstly, ECHG is always very keen to encourage the local community to speak to us if they have any concerns about our schemes. But we haven't actually had any formal complaints about Longhills made to us, despite the fact that our door is always open.

"Community liaison is important for ECHG and Longhills is part of the regular community liaison walks with a range of local community representatives. Importantly, we also have very close liaison with the police beat manager."

He added: "However, we'd also like to flag up that in assessing any complaints of anti-social behaviour you need to take into account that the Fishponds community where Longhills is located is affected by issues of drugs and anti-social behaviour.

"People have to be careful not to construe that any anti-social behaviour is automatically from Longhills clients."