People living in a smart street in the Gelderland village of Beuningen have asked the town council to remove the pavement from in front of their houses because they are worried about the impact of refugees on property prices.

According to the Gelderlander newspaper, locals in the Koningstraat asked the council to take away the pavement because they feared 300 people a day would make the trek from a nearby refugee centre to the shops and that this would devalue their homes.

By removing the pavement, the asylum seekers would be forced to walk on the other side of the road, the locals say.

The council turned down the request, saying the footpath is part of the village infrastructure.

The refugee centre between Beuingen and Ewijk is due to open this autumn. No one from the local residents was available for comment, the paper said.

Beuningen is a small commuter town of some 17,000 people close to Nijmegen.