HOW heartwarming to read the concern shown for the Amblehurst Hotel asylum seekers by the three ward councillors for Ashton upon Mersey, Messrs Lamb, Whetton and Brian Rigby MBE.

It is also good to know that, ‘with absolutely no notice, the response from the council and the community has been magnificent’.

However, as pointed out by Mr Oliver and Munro, those seeking asylum are generally given refuge in the first safe country they arrive in.

As we all know, Britain is an island, and our nearest neighbours, Ireland and France, have no-one being persecuted by the state so we have to judge for ourselves the motives for this latest batch of refugees or economic migrants.

Being the season of goodwill, perhaps our three councillors will show the same concern for the needs of their own ward homeless and those being shoved further down the housing waiting list to accomodate these asylum seekers when they leave the Amblehurst.

The Tories sold off our council housing stock and Labour condemned them for doing so. Yet during 13 years of Blair and Brown, the sell-off continued.

They made things considerably worse by inviting four million low paid immigrants into the country creating the housing shortage.

Despite the Tories posturing and tough words on immigration, from the EU or otherwise, they are as useless as Labour was.

The LibDem's are no better. They want an open border for EU residents, and with up to 26 million Bulgarians and Romanians eligible to come here in January where exactly are they to be housed?

It is high time the political elite put our own people first, or is this too much to ask?

Jim Burns Victoria Road, Hale