AN appeal for the city to be more ‘generous’ and house extra asylum seekers was turned down.

Councillor Tom Piotrowski made the call for the city to accept more asylum seekers than is currently planned saying Worcester could afford to be more generous.

Worcester City Council is currently helping in the search for suitable accommodation to move around 66 asylum seekers out of hotels and into housing in the city.

At a meeting in the Guildhall on November 3, the council’s communities committee was tasked with giving feedback to private firm Serco, which has been awarded a contract by the Home Office to organise its ‘asylum seeker dispersal plans’ which will see people moved out of hotels and into housing across the West Midlands.

But despite Cllr Piotrowski’s plea to be more giving, councillors voted in favour of sticking with finding around 20 homes for asylum seekers instead of 30.

Cllr Tom Piotrowski, who was born and raised in Poland, said: “I was born in a country that has accepted four million more refugees, starting in February.

Want to stay up to date with all the latest news for your local area? It's easy, just sign up for our weekly email newsletter here and all the important stories that matter to you will be delivered straight to your inbox.

"Places like Lebanon increased the population by 20 per cent simply by accepting Syrian refugees so, in the grand scheme of things, we can certainly afford to be more generous.”

Cllr Jabba Riaz, chair of the communities committee, said it was the first time Worcester had been put in such a position by the Home Office over housing asylum seekers and it would be better to accept a “smaller number” to make sure it “got it right the first time.”

“We’re a compassionate city, we’re a benevolent city, but we haven’t got the experience,” he said.

“This is actually the first time we have encountered this scenario and I would always advise us to take a smaller number, to learn, to understand and to accommodate, so we can do this properly.

“No doubt this won’t be the only opportunity, there will be other opportunities further down the line which national government will impose on us for us to take more so it’s always best in scenarios like this, where we haven’t demonstrated an ability to accommodate, to take the sensible and precautious route so we can make sure we get it right first time.”