SUPPORTERS of the deportation-threatened Kachepa family are planning another trip to London in a bid to persuade ministers to let them remain in Weymouth.

Campaigners are worried the hundreds of protest letters they sent to the Home Office last month which call on the Government to stop the deportation on humanitarian grounds were ignored by then immigration minister Des Browne.

So they have decided to write more letters and deliver them in person to the office of Tony McNulty, who has been appointed the new immigration minister in the latest Government reshuffle.

It was Mr McNulty who as transport minister in 2003 announced that Weymouth would get the funding it needed to build the long-awaited relief road.

Mr McNulty is a friend of South Dorset MP Jim Knight and his appointment could be a boost to the campaign, said Ralph Johnson, who is a friend of the Kachepas.

He said: "It's important we keep pushing this."

Mr Johnson is disappointed that letters sent to Mr Browne had only been acknowledged by a junior member of staff based at the immigration enquiry office in Croydon.

He said: "The letter I sent to the Prime Minister and his wife was acknowledged by someone in Croydon.

"I thought sending letters might have been a way to persuade ministers to re-examine the family's case, but I don't think any of them have even been read."

Verah Kachepa and her four children, who have been in Weymouth since 2001, are due to be sent back to Malawi on July 26.

Mr Johnson said efforts were continuing to find an expert witness on Malawi who could argue at an appeal that the family would be in danger if they are deported.

School friends of 10-year-old Upili Kachepa are holding a coffee morning at Radipole United Reformed Church Hall in Spa Road on Saturday at 11am. Money raised will support the Kachepa family fund.