Councillors push for a timeline to end asylum seeker use of an Erewash hotel and call for St George’s Day parade

Erewash Borough Council headquarters in Long Eaton. Photo by Eddie Bisknell.

By Eddie Bisknell – Local Democracy Reporting Service

Reform councillors in a part of Derbyshire are pushing for a timeline to end asylum seeker use of a hotel – as well as calling for a St George’s Day parade.

At an Erewash Borough Council meeting on Thursday, January 22nd, councillors are set to debate seven motions.

This includes motions from Reform councillors Cllr Paul Maginnis and Cllr Dan Price – who are also county councillors – on asylum seeker hotels and St George’s Day respectively.

Cllr Maginnis is asking for council to write to Adam Thompson, Erewash’s MP, asking for him to lobby the Home Office for a clear and public timeline for when the Best Western asylum hotel “will no longer be used to house asylum seekers”.

He also asks the council to confirm that it will “only meet the minimum duties set out in legislation in relation to housing any individuals leaving the Best Western Hotel, and that it will not go beyond these statutory requirements. This includes not being placed in HMOs when there is no local connection”.

The hotel in Bostocks Lane, Sandiacre, has been in use for asylum seeker accommodation for more than three years and remains in use more than two years after its promised cessation by former Conservative immigration minister – now Reform UK MP – Robert Jenrick.

Mr Jenrick had said in Parliament in late 2023, in response to then Erewash MP, Conservative Maggie Throup, that the first closures of hotels used for asylum seekers accommodation would take place from January 2024 and that if Erewash’s weren’t in the first tranche of closures they would be “exited very soon”.

The adjacent Novotel hotel ceased its use for asylum seeker accommodation in June 2024 but the Best Western continues to be used for this purpose.

The most recent Home Office data, up until September 2025, released in November, shows there are currently 179 asylum seekers being accommodated in the Best Western Hotel.

Adam Thompson, Labour, who became Erewash MP in July 2024, had said at the time that the Best Western would cease this use “as soon as possible” once the backlog of claims was cleared.

He declined to comment on Reform’s motion until after the debate had taken place.

In October, councillors had agreed to consider seeking an injunction to end the use of the Best Western hotel as asylum seeker accommodation.

Councillors outlined that the authority’s legal and planning officials would assess the property, just like they would any other facility in the borough, to ascertain whether any legislation has been breached – such as a change of use application – or if there is a “community amenity” risk to consider.

Meanwhile, Cllr Price, who is Reform’s county council group whip, has called for a debate to ask the borough leader to write to the Prime Minister requesting a St George’s Day bank holiday.

Cllr Price also asks the council to lend support for a St George’s Day parade through Ilkeston, and to work with community groups and businesses to help make this happen.

Further motions relate to the potential for borough elections in 2027 to be postponed, the authority ending its use of Twitter/X, parish council grants and insisting solar panels are installed on all new buildings and extensions.