PRIME Minister Tony Blair is being urged to bail out homeowners unable to sell their houses because of the planned asylum seekers' centre at Throckmorton.

Mid-Worcestershire MP Peter Luff has written to Mr Blair, urging him to help hard-pressed residents, who say the proposed asylum centre is "the final nail in the coffin" for the village.

Mr Luff is to open a House of Commons debate over the asylum centre proposal today.

He said: "I will particularly emphasise the need to help families in the immediate vicinity of the airfield.

"No-one there can now sell their homes as a direct and exclusive result of two separate Government decisions - the foot and mouth burial site and the proposed asylum centre.

"There is an absolute and unqualified obligation of the Government to buy the houses of any family that wishes to sell.

"I will also ask the minister to withdraw the very hurtful suggestion made by Lord Rooker, that it was time for Throckmorton to share the burden of coping with the asylum crisis.

"Throckmorton has already borne too many burdens on behalf of the rest of us, and the time has come to leave the place in peace."

Trish Green and her husband, Peter, of College Row, have been trying to sell their house for four months and have also been in talks with the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) as to whether their house should now be bought by the Government.

The Greens are looking to move to Herefordshire or the Welsh borders to be near their disabled son.

Because their house is one of four which backs on to the foot-and-mouth burial site and they now have the likelihood of an asylum centre being built in the village, selling is proving impossible.

She said: "We've had a few people come and look but the burial site is 400 metres from our back garden and the possibility of having an asylum centre in the village has just made things worse."

"We've spent about £40,000 on renovating the house and now we cannot sell it and if you cannot sell your house, it is worthless.

"We have been in dispute with DEFRA for 10 or 11 months to see if our houses are saleable, but we are still waiting for an answer.