FURIOUS Barry residents fighting asylum seeker plans for Sully Hospital have slammed First Minister Rhodri Morgan for allowing Home Office inspectors access to the site.

They have joined forces with Sully community councillors and say they are "livid" at the latest developments.

It was recently revealed that Mr Morgan overruled Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust by instructing it to allow Home Office inspectors access to see if the site is suitable for 750 refugees.

But Mr Morgan says the reason inspectors should be able to get in is simply to see how unsuitable the Hayes Road site is.

Council chairman Cllr David Sylvester said: "The members of my council have an excellent relationship with the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust. "We have worked closely with them in achieving a revised planning consent in relation to the Sully Hospital site.

"While I understand the point of view of Rhodri Morgan, I do not feel that it was necessarily appropriate for him to overrule the Trust at this point in time."

Mr Morgan has taken the case on because Health Minister Jane Hutt has an interest, as Assembly Member for the Vale of Glamorgan.

He said: "Without the Home Office inspectors seeing the site for themselves, they're unlikely to be convinced of its unsuitability.

"We, the Assembly, share the local view that the building is not safe or suitable.

"We should demonstrate this to the Home Office by allowing them to see it for themselves."

Sully Hospital opened in 1936 as a tuberculosis hospital. In its last years it was used to house mental health patients, eventually closing in March 2001 when the final patients were moved to Barry and Whitchurch Hospitals.

Its closure came after a Health Advisory Service report in March 2000 stated: "Sully Hospital does not provide an adequate environment for the in-patient care of people with a mental illness."