TRIUMPHANT campaigners in Sittingbourne are celebrating after winning their fight to stop the Coniston Hotel being used as a centre for asylum seekers.

But the announcement that the Government was scrapping plans to convert the hotel into an induction centre has sparked fresh concerns over the future of the hotel - a popular function venue and the town's only hotel.

Home Office minister Beverley Hughes has announced that after a period of consultation, she had assessed all the facts and decided to abandon the plan.

The news has been greeted with joy by residents and councillors who had been outraged when plans for the asylum centre were revealed exclusively by the Kent Messenger Group in January.

The backlash over the secrecy surrounding the plans forced the Government to carry out a formal consultation exercise. Thousands of people signed petitions that were delivered to Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament and hundreds of people took part in demonstrations outside the hotel.

Swale Borough Council was also pursuing legal action to prevent the plans from going ahead.

Sandra Kennett, who led the protests, said: "What we want to know now is what they are going to do with the hotel now."

The Coniston, in London Road, is currently in the hands of Accommodata, the firm contracted to run the induction centre.

The manager has declined to comment and referred all queries to the National Asylum Support Service. NASS said the hotel was no longer its concern and in turn referred us to Accommodata, but nobody was available for comment.

Clive Eglington, of Sittingbourne Action Committee in Kent, said: "I hope that the hotel can now be developed and taken forward in the way that the original owners intended it - for the benefit of the local community, local businesses and the local economy."

Sittingbourne firm Perisan Leisure, which owns Fat Sam's nightclub, says it is still interested in turning the hotel in to an entertainment venue and is in negotiations with owners.

Managing director Medhi Afshar, whose brother Frank died in a car crash two weeks ago, said he thought the owners would now be keen to off-load the hotel.

At the height of the Coniston rumpus, Frank Afshar said: "We can give the people back their hotel."