Historic West Midlands private school is not housing asylum seekers - despite social media claims
Urban explorers have also been warned to stay away from the building.
A former private school is the latest historic building in Malvern to deny rumours it is housing asylum seekers.
Malvern St James also warned so-called ‘urban explorers’ to stay away from the building.
Claims have been made on social media that asylum seekers are staying at the historic building in Avenue Road, which closed as a school earlier this year.
But group bursar Tim Williams said the allegations are “entirely fabricated” with no basis in reality.
Malvern St James speaking out comes just days after the town’s historic Abbey Hotel had to deny similar rumours, which have been spreading on Facebook in recent days.
Mr Williams said: “It is unhelpful that Malvern St James is being wrongly portrayed on social media.
“We are not a hotel for asylum seekers, and we are not an abandoned site for urban explorers.
“Our hard-working staff should not be harassed by unwelcome intruders who are completely misunderstanding who we are.”
Now it is no longer a school, plans are underway to transform the site into an active community venue.
Interest has already taken off, with a range of groups booked to run activities including gymnastics, yoga, art and dog training.
“We recently started a collaboration with West Mercia Police as a venue for training their service dogs,” said Mr Williams.
“After the Malvern Gazette ran an article about this, three more dog training groups have reached out to us. Happily, ours is a large site with a range of different buildings and grounds so we can accommodate them all.”
Malvern St James also has a thriving Sports Centre, he said, which is used by members as well as lots of local groups, including basketball team the Malvern Mavericks and The Amelia K Academy Performing Arts School.
“As you would expect from a former boarding school, Malvern St James has a wealth of facilities,” Mr Williams said.
“We can host anything from a corporate conference to a mother and baby group, spin classes to pottery clubs as well as residential hires like the National Youth Choir who use our facilities every year.
“We look forward to welcoming more users to our thriving site.”
Duncan Grey, general manager of the Abbey Hotel, said claims asylum seekers were being housed at the venue in Abbey Road were untrue and the hotel continues to operate as normal.
County and district councillor Paul Bennett said “nonsense” claims on social media were not being backed up with evidence.