Plans to invite a group of male asylum seekers for a ‘training day’ to help them settle in Britain at a Sussex community centre during the school holiday had to be abandoned after furious reaction from residents.

Wilderness Wood, a holiday retreat and ‘community hub’ nestled among the ancient woodland of the Sussex Weald, was forced to cancel the planned event yesterday after protests.

The planned meeting – just five miles from Crowborough, which has become a flashpoint in the national immigrant debate – is thought to have been arranged by organisers who planned to invite small boat migrants to the forest.

Wednesday’s event was believed to include a visit to the 60 acre woodland area that runs arts, crafts, music and forest school workshops throughout the holiday.

The aim was a trial in assisting newly arrived migrants with practical and ‘emotional’ support to help them adjust to living in the UK.

In previous Easter holidays the venue, an education centre, has been given over wholly to less controversial outdoors events for adults and schoolchildren, including picnics and Easter egg hunts.

Once news of Wednesday’s event went round locally a number of residents of the sleepy neighbouring village of Hadlow Down turned up at the site to oppose plans to welcome male adult migrants to the site.

The invited migrants, who were part of the 80 men who arrived at a nearby Army base under the cover of darkness in January, are virulently opposed by locals, who claim they pose a threat to women and children.

Plans made by Wilderness Wood, a retreat in East Sussex, for a ‘training day’ to help migrants settle into Britain have been scrapped

Retreat owners Dan Morrish and Emily Charkin faced a ‘violent backlash’ from locals over the training day they proposed

In this corner of East Sussex tensions are already high – with protests every Sunday in Crowborough over Home Office plans to house 540 single male asylum seekers in total including the 80 arrivals there from January.

Wednesday’s controversial event was cancelled by venue owners, married parents Dan Morrish and Emily Charkin, following an outpouring of anger in a Facebook group for the area.

Homeowner Jennifer Kersey, 71, told the Daily Mail: ‘They cancelled it over threats, but I say it was public opinion being against it, they have now decided not to do it. There are not many people here who are in favour of it.

‘I don’t know where it’s all going to end to be honest. There’s nothing here to draw them [migrants] here. We haven’t even got a shop.’

Former architect Mr Morrish and his wife Emily came under scrutiny from neighbours for the proposed meeting, with one telling the Daily Mail of a ‘violent backlash’.

Jim Smith, 59, said: ‘I only heard about it this morning. I know Dan and Emily quite well. The fact they were considering having migrants coming here for lessons, training days is shocking.

‘Now they have said they won’t do it, but it was only after there was quite a violent backlash. People are very upset about it. It’s when things are done underhand like this. There was no running it past us. Especially those with girls and young children.

‘They already moved all the migrants in at two or three o’clock in the morning in Crowborough. People need to know what’s going on.

‘Dan and Emily eventually said they would be cancelling the workshops.

Mr Morrish (pictured at Wilderness Wood) is a former architect

The Wilderness Wood holiday retreat and community hub is nestled among the ancient woodland of the Sussex Weald

‘I’m very much against it, obviously, having them right on my doorstep. So is 99% of the population.’

Another local resident said: ‘There is uproar in the village and it’s very frightening. You only have to look online to see the videos.

‘It’s a very nasty split in the village and some true colours are coming to light.

‘There are meetings that I feel are going to get very nasty.

‘I’m intrigued by which way things will go because it will only take one small incident for carnage, I’m certain.’

Another villager maintained plans for the event were scuppered after ‘right wingers’ left aggressive comments online and arrived to investigate on Wednesday morning.

He said: ‘They were hanging around the entrance to Wilderness Woods. This makes women and children in my family scared. It is disgusting bullying on a tiny local business.’

A poster was circulated on social media opposing the migrant workshop titled ‘Safeguard our Children at Wilderness Woods’.

It called for locals to come together peacefully to call for ‘clear safeguarding policies’ over concerns relating to ‘unfamiliar individuals in children’s activity areas’.

At a cafe area inside Wilderness Wood, a number of parents recently clashed with staff over their favourable view on migrants.

Meanwhile leaflets from the leftist Together Alliance were being displayed to visitors for a march ‘against the far-right’ in London on March 28.

Another flyer had ‘refugees welcome’ in large pink letters.

Local residents fear an influx of mysterious men to Hadlow Down, with its scarce amenities and a population under a thousand.

At a cafe area inside Wilderness Wood, a number of parents recently clashed with staff over their favourable view on migrants

They say the inclusion of fighting age men from extreme locations such as war zones is at odds with Wilderness Wood, which holds events like weddings, children’s play parties and is crowdfunding for a large sauna. [what a weird and kind of racist thing for someone to say! What’s the quote behind it? IAE, I’m not sure it’s a great look to give this strange outlook airtime… but that’s not a man eds issue really]

One mother told the Daily Mail: ‘All I would say is I can understand if they were families, but when they’re all young men, economic immigrants, it’s slightly different.

‘It’s a difficult one, because I can understand that a lot of these people are fleeing terrible situations, and I don’t want to be narrow-minded about it.

‘But at the same time, I’m one of these people who is on the fence. Because I can see a lot of people coming into the area who do not understand our way of life.’

Another neighbour added: ‘I feel sorry for them coming over. Once they’re here, they can’t be dealt with since Brexit. We can’t send them straight back.

‘They’re undocumented so we can’t send them back to their home country. We don’t know whether it is true so we can’t prove it.

‘But I’m surprised that they’re actually allowed to roam around after being held in their hotels or camps. If they’re in the country illegally, I thought they would be detained.’

Social media footage taken at the weekend showed busses, with 20 male migrants in each of them, arriving to the local town of Crawley from Crowborough.

The middle-Eastern men [how do we know this? Could be from north Africa, Albania etc], who were in their mid 20s and older, refused to speak when approached, while others covered their faces from the camera.

Community group Crowborough Shield, led by mother of four Kim Bailey, is taking the Home Office to court over its plans to house hundreds of foreign men at the former Army training camp in its plan to close migrant hotels.

The Home Office previously refused to comment on an alleged knife attack.

At a Wealden District Council meeting in February members asked leaders for clarity on an alleged stabbing when a health worker was taken to hospital on February 5.

Councillor James Partridge said the police had denied the incident but the Home Office had declined to comment.

He said: ‘They should absolutely, within seconds, have said, “that’s not true” and sadly, they won’t.’

He said the alleged knife attack was a ‘classic example’ of the Home Office failing to engage with the community.

‘We have been bounced into doing the Home Office’s job in one critical area which is trying to get information and pass that on to the local community’, Cllr Patridge said.

He added: ‘If I ever have a gravestone, it will probably say, the villain of the piece is the Home Office.’

The site was previously used by the Ministry of Defence to train cadets.

Run by Clearsprings Ready Homes, the migrants are required to sign in and out at the front gate.

Protests take place every Sunday in Crowborough at 10am.

Wilderness Wood wrote online: ‘We have dropped plans to host a small group of asylum seekers for a visit to the woods, due to threats from some groups and individuals.’

They added: ‘Wilderness Wood is not housing any asylum seekers. And we do not have any plans to do so.’