Mid Sussex District Council is to investigate how it can support Copthorne residents concerned about the ongoing use of a hotel to house asylum seekers.

During a meeting of the full council, a motion was tabled by Graham Casella (Con, Copthorne & Worth), who said residents felt that the prolonged use of the Copthorne Hotel since 2021 for asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants was ‘having a negative impact on the village’.

He added: “The loss of tourism to the area is impacting the local shops, pubs and restaurants. The hotel was – and can be again – a major employer, especially for young people seeking local and first-time jobs.

“Protests, which are ongoing, have drawn people from out of the area to attend and some of these people have been aggressive and caused local unrest. There’s a lack of social cohesion in the village caused by a lack of integration.”

Figures from the Home Office show that, as of the end of June, 1,018 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels, known as ‘contingency accommodation’, in West Sussex. Of those, 477 are in Mid Sussex – the highest in the county.

Mr Casella said: “It seems that there is a disproportionate amount of hotels in the area and a large number of people are in the hotels in comparison to the population of Copthorne. This leads to an extra strain on our resources.”

Alongside the concerns about the impact on the village are frustrations that no-one seems to be talking to people about what is going on and what will happen later down the line.

Mr Casella said: “For the last three-and-a-half years we have lived in an information vacuum, with repeated requests for information being ignored. Sadly, when there’s a gap, people fill it in with information that supports their own agendas, which is again causing unease and division within the village.”

While appreciating that the council’s hands are somewhat tied, he called for the authority to investigate ways to ‘help bring our community back together’.

Councillors supported his call by 42 votes to zero with two abstentions.

Christopher Phillips (Ind, Copthorne & Worth) said the economic impact on Copthorne had been quite significant and he was ‘very concerned that it shouldn’t continue too much longer’.

He told the meeting that there had been suggestions ‘from a reliable source’ that the intention was to extend the amount of time the hotel will be used as contingency accommodation.

Robert Eggleston, leader of the council, said: “We and other public bodies should do all we can to provide support to all residents living in the Copthorne area, wherever they reside.

“Fear of crime, for example, or uncertainties around social cohesion are important issues and for us and other public bodies to provide reassurance and support is important to ease those concerns.”

Mr Eggleston said the issue stirred up ‘personal emotions’, describing how his maternal grandparents started their lives in the Pale of Settlement, the Jewish ghettos established by the Russian Tsars, before fleeting persecution, the pogroms and economic deprivation to a new life in the East End of London.

He added: “This is a family history I increasingly treasure and it shapes my views of those seeking refuge in a still compassionate Britain.

“But I do equally understand the unease that some people may feel when they have to accommodate people that are strangers to them.”