EAST Hampshire District Council (EHDC) has said it will do “all it can” to assist people fleeing Syria.

The pledge to help comes after David Cameron this week announced that Britain would resettle up to 20,000 refugees over the remainder of this parliament.

An online petition, on campaigning site 38degrees, was also launched this week, calling on East Hampshire to welcome 50 refugee families into the district.

While not currently in a position to discuss specific numbers, district council leader Ferris Cowper said the council was ready to lend a hand.

“East Hampshire District Council warmly welcomes the Prime Minister’s humanitarian commitment to accept refugees from the Syrian conflict and the EU role to try to allocate such a vast number of these victims throughout the territories of the European Union,” he said.

“EHDC will do all it can to assist, within the limits of the housing, health, education and social care infrastructure we have locally. I anticipate that we will offer financial assistance to voluntary groups who wish to organise relief supplies.

“The existing District Councillor Devolved Grant fund is ideal for this purpose. Every district councillor has the newly-increased budget of £4,500 per year to spend with suitable local charities and local voluntary groups.

“I believe that this local management of funds will ensure the most appropriate response. In the event that this proves insufficient, we can consider the larger Cabinet Approved Grant fund in exceptional circumstances.”

The conflict in Syria and neighbouring Iraq has seen millions of refugees driven from their homes.

The fighting in Syria is a particularly nuanced situation with people fleeing both the forces of president Bashar al-Assad and the Islamic State group which has advanced in the region.

On Monday, Mr Cameron told the House of Commons that the whole country has been “deeply moved by heartbreaking images” of refugees in the media.

He said it was “absolutely right” that Britain should “live up to its moral responsibility” and help those in need “just as we’ve done so proudly throughout history”.

He explained that the established Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme, in place since early 2014, would be expanded, with an additional 20,000 people currently living in camps in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon being resettled in the UK by 2020.

Money from the UK’s international aid budget will be re-channeled to oversee this for the first year.

East Hampshire MP Damian Hinds said Britain was a “compassionate country” and welcomed Mr Cameron’s commitment.

“Individually, Britons are among the most generous in the world,” he added. “At a national level, we have a well-deserved reputation for living up to our responsibilities in the international community. We are the only major country in the world that has kept our promise to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on international development and we are the second largest bilateral donor of aid to the Syrian conflict.

“We have all been incredibly affected by some of the things we have seen and heard over the last few weeks. I think it is absolutely right, and necessary, that we do more, as the Prime Minister has committed.”

Mr Hinds added: “I support his pledge to resettle a further 20,000 refugees over the course of this parliament, and with specific emphasis on taking some of the most vulnerable direct from refugee camps.”

Some, however, have criticised Mr Cameron for not accepting a higher number as, when compared with other European countries, his pledge is seen by opponents as relatively small.

For example, France is due to take 24,000 people over the next two years, with German officials estimated to see more than 800,000 in 2015 (just over the last weekend alone 18,000 asylum seekers arrived in the country).

However, Germany has been more inviting as it has a falling population, whereas the UK’s is rising. Germany’s dependency ratio is also rising much faster than the UK’s, hence their more relaxed borders.

The Prime Minister told MPs that these people brought to Britain under the Vulnerable Persons Relocation Scheme will be granted humanitarian protection, which means they won’t have immediate asylum status, giving them the right to settle. Instead the protection will allow them to stay for five years, after which time they can formally apply for asylum.

Since 2011, 4,980 Syrian asylum seekers have been allowed to stay in the UK and, Mr Cameron said, many of the incoming 20,000 will be children.

This, he added, would be the “modern equivalent of the Kindertransport” during the Second World War.