Bogus asylum seeker letter refuted by council

A bogus letter claiming 60 asylum seekers were soon to be housed in Hoyland has been refuted by Barnsley Council.

The false information was recently put through local residents' letterboxes and shared online in two local Facebook community groups.

It stated an agreement had been made for asylum seekers to move into apartments at Hoyland Town Hall within the next few weeks.

However, after liaising with the Home Office, the local authority confirmed the letter and social media posts were "completely untrue".

In a statement, Barnsley Council said: "A letter sharing false information about asylum seeker accommodation has been posted through letterboxes in Hoyland and shared by Facebook accounts.

"We can confirm that the information in both the letter and social media posts is completely untrue."

Over 24 hours, the Facebook posts attracted hundreds of comments from local residents.

The community pages later removed the posts with an acknowledgement the information was published in good faith but was incorrect.

A council spokesperson said it was "totally irresponsible" for material to be posted and shared without fact-checking.

"It's crucial that community pages take the time to verify information before sharing it on social media to a large audience - not everything you read is true, and it's sometimes created to cause the spread of hate or to promote people's personal agendas," they added.

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North