Server resource packs not loading - "java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused: connect" on client side

When I set the resource-pack in the server.settings file to 
http://prosnap.co/prosnap_rs_pack.zip

Or any other valid url it gets changed during the launching of the server to 
http\://prosnap.co/prosnap_rs_pack.zip

This seems to be causing an issue with resource pack loading as my server-resource-packs folder in .minecraft remains empty even tho the minecraft client states it is downloading the resource pack.

Steps to reproduce:

1. Set the resource-pack url in server settings
2. Set the sha1 hash i used (http://www.sha1-online.com/) with an input of "prosnap_rs_pack"
3. Launch the server

Tested on both localhost and dedicated server, same result