LOCALS are calling for asylum seekers to be returned to Herefordshire.

Asylum seekers who had been living in the Talbot Hotel in Leominster were forced to leave on October 2.

It has been claimed by campaigners who were working with them that they were removed "without warning" and due to "structural safety issues" at the hotel, but the hotel is expected to be reopened and will likely continue to be used as ‘contingency accommodation’.

Members of Refugee Response Leominster and Beyond want the families who left to return to the hotel as soon as it is safe.

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Kathy Bland, a member of the group, said that hard work and public funds had already been spent on enrolling asylum seekers into local schools and doctors. She said that in other areas children wait for school places for over a year, whereas children in the Talbot were enrolled within a fortnight of the term beginning.

Mrs Bland added that if new families are brought in then the investment that has already been made will be wasted and the process will have to start all over again.

During their time at the hotel, families had become invested in the local community, taking part in projects such as Leominster in Bloom and the repair café, as well as a number of asylum seekers being confirmed in the town's priory church.

 Mrs Bland said: “Bill Wiggin will suggest that it should stay closed but if it can be reopened safely then it’s a good place for them to be.

“They should be brought back on the grounds of offering humanity, compassion and being a civic society, but also on the grounds of our public funds.”