CRAVEN is preparing to welcome families from war-torn Syria - but is yet to work out just how many.

Many residents have been calling Craven District Council with offers of accommodation and last week, officers met with Home Office staff to plan the way ahead.

But before it can come up with firm proposals, it needs to consider long-term implications on resources.

“We’ve all been moved by the terrible images and stories of Syrian refugees attempting to flee to Europe," said Paul Ellis, Craven District Council's director of services.

“We are working in partnership with North Yorkshire’s county and district councils to support the Syrian refugees. We all want to work together to take in our fair share of refugees and play our part in any humanitarian response."

But he added: “The councils agreed with the Home Office that we will need more detail about the longer term implications for resources, before we can decide on the number of refugees we can help."

Last week, council officers along with their counterparts from North Yorkshire County Council and Selby, Richmondshire, Hambleton, Scarborough, Ryedale and Harrogate district councils, met government representatives at County Hall, Northallerton, where they discussed initial plans to accommodate refugees.

The meeting was planned some time ago to discuss the dispersal of asylum seekers. However, the developing humanitarian crisis involving Syrian refugees led to the scope of the meeting being extended to address the matter.

“Few could fail to be moved by the pictures and stories of terrible suffering of the displaced peoples of Syria and North Yorkshire’s councils agree that we must do everything we can to play our part in giving support,” said Cllr Carl Les, leader of North Yorkshire County Council.

“But to give proper support, we need the resources to do it and so once we have a full understanding of available resources, both for now and in the longer term, North Yorkshire’s councils will work together with the Home Office to agree on numbers.”

Prime Minister David Cameron recently announced that the country was prepared to take a total of 20,000 refugees in the next five years

Ahead of the meeting of councils, Cllr Richard Foster, leader of Craven District Council, said proportionally, that would mean five or six being sent to Craven every year.

He added: "Accommodating asylum seekers in any area is about much more than finding them somewhere to live. There are also wider issues to consider such as health and social care, integration into the community, education and as such it will be important we work closely with the agencies that have the expertise and resources to help."

Cllr Foster said the council was collating details of offers from residents and in addition, was directing people to refugee charities, both in the area, and nationally, such as refugeecouncil.org.uk or refugee-action.org.uk