ASYLUM seekers could be housed near Dawlish if the owner of a local care home gets the go-ahead.
Richard Davey, a director of the company that owns the Gatehouse Nursing home in Holcombe Drive, holcombe, said he had received inquiries about housing asylum seekers there from a London-based company.
That outcome is just one of the possibilities Mr Davey is considering for the building to replace the ailing nursing home business.
Others include demolishing it and building a crescent of houses there, and turning it in to bed and breakfast accommodation.
Mr Davey was given permission to demolish the home last week by Teignbridge council.
But his application for change of use to bed and breakfast accommodation will not be debated by the planning committee until next month.
Mr Davey said: 'As it is, the nursing home is losing a lot of money. And it can't go on operating in the way it has been.
'We have considered converting to bed and breakfast accommodation and have applied to the district authority for change of use.
'But we have also had inquiries from a London-based organisation that houses asylum seekers.
'It is something I am looking at and feel it is a feasible way of generating income.
'There seems to be a lot of fear about that among local residents.
'Asylum seekers are only under-privileged people after all.
'But there has been nothing definite decided yet.
'Everything is under negotiation.'
Teignbridge councillor Humphrey Clemens, who lives at Holcombe, said the application would be dealt with by Teignbridge Council Planning committee.
A spokesman for Holcombe residents' association, which held a meeting on Friday which Mr Davey attended but was not allowed to speak, said representations would be made to Teignbridge when the change of use of use application was heard.
The spokesman declined to give details of the meeting.