PHONEY notices telling people in a Kent village that vacant buildings in the area were to be used to house asylum seekers have been condemned as "distressing and distasteful".

Two hoax compulsory purchase order notices were put up on telegraph poles in Smarden Road and Love Lane at Headcorn, near Maidstone.

They informed villagers that vacant buildings in the area were to be used to house asylum seekers and gave residents just four days to lodge their complaints with Maidstone Borough Council. The council has received several calls from worried householders.

The posters bore the name of Kent County Council's strategic planning director, Pete Raine. Posters were also put up on notice boards in the village centre asking residents if they knew about the proposals. ut as the news travelled around the village, the notices mysteriously disappeared.

At a meeting of Headcorn Parish Council on Wednesday, residents of the two roads wanted reassurance that the application was a hoax.

Stephanie Dale, of Smarden Road, saw the application and photocopied it. She was concerned as the notice looked "remarkably similar" to one posted months before warning residents about road works.

She immediately lodged her objections with the borough council, even though she had doubts over the order's authenticity.

She said: "We felt we needed to respond, no matter how ridiculous it seemed. The notices looked official although they did not bear a signature and weren't on headed paper.

"We were concerned that if it was a compulsory purchase order it hadn't been done in a very courteous manner. Hopefully the person who did it will think twice before doing it again."

Chairman of the parish council, Will Day, tried to assure villagers that housing asylum seekers in Headcorn was not in the pipeline. He said: "These notices have caused a great deal of concern to a very large number of people in the village. I went to look at them and it was pretty apparent to me that they were not in the correct format.

"Personally I find it extremely distressing and very distasteful. We do not know whether action will be taken but we sincerely hope it will not happen again."

A KCC spokeswoman said that there were no plans to house asylum seekers in Headcorn. She added: "As far as we're concerned it's a hoax but people seem to have believed it."