THE Home Office is “covering up its incompetence” protecting the UK’s borders by forcing councils to meetings behind closed doors, a city councillor has claimed.

A discussion on housing asylum seekers was held in private by Worcester City Council’s Communities committee last week.

After being questioned by Cllr Alan Amos, senior council officers revealed the reason was because it contained information the Home Office didn’t want to be made public.

COUNCILLOR: Alan Amos says the Home Office is covering up its own failingsCOUNCILLOR: Alan Amos says the Home Office is covering up its own failings

Cllr Amos said nothing came out in the debate that he felt justified it being held in secret.

“We’d had a report on affordable housing that showed there was a shortage of it in Worcester,” said Cllr Amos, the council’s sole Tory councillor.

“We’d heard earlier in the meeting that we have 4,000 people on the housing list in Worcester and thousands of households in temporary accommodation.

“This shows the city does not have the affordable accommodation or the infrastructure in terms of GPs, dentists, schools and hospitals to increase our ability to take in asylum seekers.

“The point is this debate should have been held in public - but it wasn’t the council’s fault, they were doing what they were told by the Home Office.

“The Home Office is covering up its grotesque incompetence to protect our country’s borders.

“It doesn’t want the people of Worcester to know what is going on. But it is going to affect people significantly.”

Cllr Amos also took issue with Worcester being classed as part of the West Midlands for the purposes of the report put before councillors.

“It’s totally unacceptable,” he said. “Worcester isn’t part of the West Midlands for the NHS, the police, fire. It is a wholly inauthentic region the Home Office has come up with and they’ve done it deliberately.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “The government is determined to restore order to the asylum system so that it operates swiftly, firmly and fairly. This includes our accommodation sites, as we continue to identify a range of options to reduce the use of hotels.

“We are committed to engaging with local authorities and key stakeholders as part of this process and regularly meet with them on matters of accommodation in their area.”