THE Government has bowed to public pressure to hold a public inquiry over the proposed asylum seekers' centre at Throckmorton, near Pershore.

Ministers have decided not to use emergency measures to press through their plans to house 750 refugees on the former airfield next to the burial site for 1,300 animals culled in last year's foot-and-mouth outbreak.

Instead they have agreed to hold a public inquiry with a Government inspector in charge.

Malcolm Argyle, chairman of the villages steering group, PACT (Protest at the Asylum Centre at Throckmorton), said: "We are pleased that the normal democratic process will be followed but we are not getting too excited. The government can still do what it wants but an inquiry will allow us to have a chance to be properly heard."

Wychavon's head of planning, Jack Hegarty, said: "The Government has accepted it cannot railroad the plans through using emergency powers. I expect the Home Office to hold a public meeting early in May, then to receive the plans sometime during the same month."

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff, who barraged the Government with questions in the house and presented a petition with more than 3,000 signatures on the floor, said: "It is a victory but I think they were obliged to backtrack because of legal difficulties."

Coun Argyle said many other important organisations were speaking out against large centres. Oxfam and the Immigration Advisory Services had joined the Refugee Council in urging the Government to make the centres a lot smaller and nearer to urban areas where the refugees will not be isolated, and have more chance of integrating well into the community.