Neighbours of a Horley hotel are angry at a plan which could see it turned into a detention centre for illegal immigrants.

People living in Povey Cross Road have attacked a planning application submitted to Crawley Borough Council to turn the 254-room four-star Mercure Hotel into an immigration removals centre.

The Home Office has maintained it has no need for an extra removals centre in Sussex to house people awaiting deportation.

There are already two large centres in the area, Tinsley House, which has room for 152 people, and Brook House, which opened this year with capacity for 426 men.

No-one from Arora Management Services, which is behind the bid, was prepared to comment on the reasons for the planned change.

But the hotel's general manager, Jan Lensen, said: “The Mercure is a four-star hotel.

“It's not necessarily a fait accompli that it will be a deportation centre, but we are keeping our options open.”

The planning application states: “No new buildings or extensions are proposed or alterations to the external appearance of the building.

“Internally, the existing rooms, communal and back-of-house areas would be modified to provide a range of one-person, two-person and family rooms, together with recreational, kitchen and dining areas.

“The key role of removal centres is to house detainees prior to their departure from the country.

“It is therefore important to have a number of removals centres at the international airports from where detainees will leave the country.”

A spokeswoman for the UK Border Agency said the Government was not looking for an extra site in the area.

She said: “We have no plans to build a removal centre at Gatwick.”

But resident Norman Brown, who lives opposite the hotel in Povey Cross Road, said he was “deeply suspicious.”

Mr Brown, a former chairman of Dorking and Horley Rural District Council in the 1960s, said: “There must have been some encouragement along the way somewhere.

“There are 48 houses in the immediate vicinity across the road.

“We are deeply worried about the implications. One thinks about the performance in Calais with the French clearing this dumping ground, and the one in Nottingham which led to fires and hunger strikes.”

He said: “I don't know why the hotel is doing this.”

Mr Brown, a life-long resident of Horley, said his neighbours were “absolutely against” the proposals.

Crawley borough councillors are expected to make a decision on the plan on December 18.