GIVEN the controversy that the asylum-seeker issue provokes and how it has assisted the rise of the far-Right BNP in East Lancashire, the scheme that is to be piloted here to provide better control on their numbers and whereabouts is long overdue.

There is no doubt that a feeling has grown up among many residents that they are deliberately kept in the dark about how many are coming here and where they are accommodated, giving rise to all kinds of false rumours about the total of newcomers and special treatment being granted them.

Now, Blackburn with Darwen Council, which has an agreement with the government to accept a maximum of 700 in the borough, is to be much better informed and will have greater control over where they are housed.

For, until now, the council has only had direct responsibility for housing 125 while the remainder have been found homes in the private sector, without the council really knowing how many there were or where they were living.

The upshot has been not only fuel for the rumour-mill, but also some asylum seekers being subject to shameful racist attacks, forcing the council to find new homes for them.

Now, the council will have a responsibility for placing the newcomers into both social housing and private sector accommodation. The system should never have been so slack to begin with, but it is better late than never that the mistakes are being mended.