A string of complaints about crime and disorder at the YMCA in Surbiton has prompted MP Edward Davey to organise an emergency meeting to tackle it.

A petition calling for the Victoria Road hostel to close or “be regulated” has been circulating around Surbiton and complaints from residents have been flooding on to an online discussion forum.

Some residents are so concerned they have taken to writing to Mr Davey, who has vowed to meet with YMCA managers and local councillors in the next few weeks.

Contributors to the Surbiton.com online discussion thread asked for the number of homeless people referred to the YMCA by Kingston council to be reduced, although the MP said it was unlikely that the numbers could be limited.

One complaining resident from Lovelace Gardens said: “They all congregate outside in the main high street smoking their cigarettes and drinking cider. They are very intimidating. It is a case of ‘not in my back yard’ but I think crime in the area has gone up there.”

The 122-bedroom hostel rents out 100 of its bedrooms to vulnerable homeless people, including under 18s, over 60s, disabled people, ex-service people and former prisoners. The remaining 22 are dedicated to short-term lets.

Police figures show they were called to the building 47 times in the six months from January to June 2008, which resulted in 15 crimes being reported.

The same period last year saw 52 calls and nine crimes reported.

Mr Davey defended the YMCA, saying problems reported in the past have often had nothing to do with it.

But he added: “If this time it is YMCA residents behind this unacceptable behaviour, then I would expect the management to act, as they have done before. We must not allow a few temporary residents to disrupt our town or damage the excellent but often unnoticed work that Surbiton’s YMCA has done over the years.”

Stuart Leamy, chief executive of the YMCA, added: “The people that people complain about aren’t invented. They’re coming from within the borough and they have got to be housed somewhere. These are people in need and someone has got to help them.”