Local residents have raised serious concerns about the Government’s dispersal policy for housing asylum seekers in residential communities in Maidstone & Malling.
Last week I met Cllr Des Keers and a group of residents, led by Kent County Cllr Andrew Kennedy, who presented me with a petition signed by 2,000 local people calling for the policy to be reconsidered.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to sign and share their views. I have written to Home Office Minister, Mike Tapp, MP for Dover and Deal, to request a meeting to present this petition and discuss this worrying, badly planned, and poorly thought through policy.
I’ll be working closely with Cllr Kennedy on behalf of local residents to ensure these concerns are heard, and to hold the Home Office to account, especially on the need for far greater transparency and consultation with local people about where asylum seekers are being housed.
