MPs will debate the future of the Coniston Hotel on 3 March

Councillors have voted unanimously to demand the government scraps plans to open an asylum induction centre in a Kent hotel.

Members of all three main parties on Swale Borough Council united at a special meeting on the future of Sittingbourne's Coniston Hotel.

Local MP Derek Wyatt has also won the right to have the scheme debated in the Commons.

MPs will discuss the Coniston Hotel on 3 March.

Prevent scheme

Plans to turn the hotel into an induction centre for asylum seekers became public last month - sparking protests among locals.

Due to public pressure the plans were put on hold as the government agreed the public had not been properly consulted and announced a period of consultation would take place.

But campaigning to prevent the scheme ever going ahead has continued, with Labour MP Mr Wyatt securing the chance for a Commons debate.

Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Labour councillors have united to demand the plans are scrapped at a special meeting on Tuesday night, called to consider the authority's next step.

The council has already mounted a legal challenge against the scheme on the basis it contravenes planning rules as a change of use.