A meeting to discuss the setting up a temporary refugee centre in Wormerland, just north of Amsterdam, will go ahead on Tuesday night, despite an arson attack on a pro-asylum seeker councillor’s car.

Two cars belonging to a local GroenLinks councillor and his wife were set on fire on Monday night outside their home in the village of Oostknollendam. Insiders suspect the cars were torched by people who disagree with his position on refugees ahead of the meeting.

Police are still investigating the car fires but say arson was the cause. Wormerland mayor Peter Tange said in a statement that the attack on the cars is ‘extremely serious’. ‘We will not accept this sort of thing happening in Wormerland,’ he said.

The meeting is open to the general public but people have to register in advance to attend. The destroyed cars belonged to Harold Halewijn, the councillor who posted the invitation to register on Facebook.

‘I got some odd reactions and I suspected something might happen but nothing like this,’ Halewijn is quoted as saying by news agency ANP.

Security at the meeting is also being stepped up, ANP reported.