The leader of Waverley Borough Council has spoken out against misinformation and “deeply unpleasant” racism following the circulation of ‘false rumours’ about so-called migrant hotels in the area.

Councillor Paul Follows has been tagged in posts and sent personal messages about a hotel in Godalming which he says is not only untrue, but also damaging to businesses in the area – and runs the risk of raising tensions in the community.

He said the Home Office is required to inform the local authority when it uses short term accommodation to house people fleeing persecution or war, and that has not happened.

“Over the past few days I’ve now been tagged twice in posts about an alleged ‘migrant hotel’ in Godalming and received quite a few private messages on the same matter,” said the leader of West Surrey Council.

“The private messages in particular have been deeply unpleasant.

“These locations are usually for individuals fleeing some level of persecution and are going through an asylum system that has not been properly funded for years.

“Whilst there have been problems with such accommodation in parts of the country, these are largely isolated incidents.

“That being said, I would always take any legitimate, evidence-based concerns seriously and try to respond and address them.”

He added the reaction in some cases has been overt racism and showed a general lack of any compassion or empathy that was “utterly unworthy of this country and of Godalming”.

The post has had almost 1,000 comments, reactions, and shares and calls out the harm it could have on the area, citing examples where misinformation had started riots leaving people injured and property damaged.

Cllr Follows told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “What you’ve seen is there are lots of infrastructure in the UK that has been unfunded for 15 years or more and this is another demonstration of that.

“It would be a good idea if people didn’t assume illegal migrants, refugees and migrants are all the same thing, because legally they are all quite different.

“People being housed in hotels are usually asylum seekers or refugees where most of the legal routes have been closed unless you are from Ukraine or Hong Kong.

“It’s this constant stream of misinformation without even checking whether it is true.

“We get told we need to do more for our towns and villages but it’s often the same people who will quite happily bad mouth it with these sorts of rumours, this doesn’t help – It will impact the business and those businesses around it.

“If those businesses want to take action after those doing this, they should prosecute them and seek civil action.

He added: “To say it’s a migrant hotel and that is going to be a problem is a demonstrably racist position.

“Some residents will have concerns but it’s right to raise that on evidence rather than spurious online suppositions.

“The average Brit would not like to trade positions with these people given the lives some of them have had.”