Borough Council agrees to consider seeking an injunction to cease hotel use to house asylum seekers

A Derbyshire council has agreed to consider seeking an injunction to end the use of a hotel as asylum seeker accommodation.

At an Erewash Borough Council meeting last night (Wednesday, October 8th), a majority of councillors agreed to consider seeking an injunction to cease the use of the Best Western Hotel in Sandiacre as asylum seeker accommodation.

Councillors outlined that the authority’s legal and planning officials will 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.

The Best Western currently accommodates 161 asylum seekers as of the most recent Home Office statistics published in August. All of these are waiting for their applications to be assessed by Government officials.

A recent meeting had been moved from Long Eaton to Ilkeston on the advice of the police, the Local Democracy Reporting Service was told.

Ahead of the meeting, a small protest of 20 people was held outside Ilkeston Town Hall, comprising anti-asylum seeker campaigners equipped with a substantial amount of camera equipment and some wearing British and English flags as capes and large bibs.

Security staff had been drafted in by the council and police were monitoring the protest outside the town hall.

Councillor Wayne Major, Conservative opposition leader, told the meeting: “This motion is not about saying immigration is bad. Immigration is not bad.

“What is bad is when we can’t control immigration. This is to stop the use of a facility that was never built or designed for the purpose that it is now being used for.

“We should be a welcoming country. We do need immigration but we need to control our borders.

“We can’t do much about that locally but we can send a message that local authorities are not going to be walked over and that they do have to abide by planning rules, they cannot just impose changes on facilities.”

Cllr James Dawson, Labour’s council leader, said: “This is undeniably an issue of importance to residents.

“As public servants our duty is to reduce public tension, not inflame them.”

He said discussion of the topic has elsewhere led to violence and aggression in the community.

Cllr Dawson outlined that it was not for councillors to direct council officers to carry out planning enforcement or legal intervention, responsibilities that rest solely with those staff.

As a result, the motion to “seek an injunction” was tweaked to “consider seeking”.

Cllr Dawson said: “There is broad cross-party agreement that the use of hotels in this way is unsustainable.”

Cllr Becca Everett, Labour’s deputy council leader, said work was already underway to end the use of the Best Western as an asylum seeker hotel and that the authority would assess the legal grounds for an injunction, saying the current facility was not “appropriate”.

Cllr Ann Mills, Green Party, said the issue risked “scapegoating an already vulnerable group” and that “residents are still being sold a myth that the closure of hotels and apparent disappearance of asylum seekers into thin air will solve all their problems”.

She claimed the motion would fuel “division and fear” and was motivated by “racism, xenophobia and faux concern for community safety”.

Cllr Mills said there was a self-fulfilling prophecy of councillors claiming there was a concern for community safety which was being stoked and then used as an excuse for action.

She said the asylum seekers in the Long Eaton hotel “are probably some of the most closely scrutinised people in the borough”.

Cllr Mick Pace, a Long Eaton ward member, has now resigned from the Labour group and currently sits as an independent, citing concerns of the motion and national policies relating to Israel and Gaza.

He said he had received 15 emails about the asylum seeker hotel motion and all had been to raise support for assistance provided to those housed there.

Cllr Paul Maginnis, Conservative, said he welcomed calls to decrease tension and name-calling but said he had already been labelled “far-right”, a “fascist, racist and a Nazi”, saying this “smear” stopped any constructive talk about the issue.

Cllr Robert Mee, Liberal Democrat, said it was “nice” that Epping Forest District Council in Essex had “cash to spend” on court battles but that it could be a “waste of money that we can’t afford” and may be “money down the drain and the only people that would benefit are the lawyers”.

Cllr Andrew Prince, Conservative, said members of the public cannot currently walk up to the front desk in the Best Western to book a room and this displayed a change of use from its hotel function.

The debate follows a High Court judgement in August brought by a challenge from Epping Forest District Council in Essex, which saw an interim injunction put in place blocking The Bell Hotel from its continued use to house asylum seekers.

That decision has since been overturned following an appeal from the Government and a court hearing over a permanent injunction is set to be heard later this month.