Among the crowded shelves of Sacred Heart hardware store in Crowborough, there is a gap on the wall where the kitchen knives used to be displayed.

As the local rumour of recent days goes, that space is linked to the news story of the moment in the East Sussex town: the imminent arrival of hundreds of asylum seekers at a nearby military training camp .

Tom Jarman, the manager, says he was asked to move the knives two weeks ago by police who told him it was part of a knife crime campaign. “Considering the timing, whether that’s to do with the camp, I don’t know,” he says.

It is typical of the confusion and apprehension in the town of about 22,000 people, where local people are fighting plans to house up to 540 “single adult male” asylum seekers at Crowborough training camp, a site used

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