Council will not rule out hotel's use for homeless

The Sneyd Arms Hotel in Tunstall is being used by the council to house nine homeless people

Using a town centre hotel to house homeless people will not be ruled out, despite hundreds of objections.

Nine people have been given rooms at the Sneyd Arms hotel in Tunstall, with Stoke-on-Trent City Council saying it has a legal duty to provide temporary accommodation for those without a home.

Objectors said using the hotel in this way had been linked to rising crime and anti-social behaviour in the area.

More than 500 people signed a petition - launched by former Stoke-on-Trent North MP Jonathan Gullis - calling on the city council to find alternative solutions.

Officials at the local authority said that while they are trying to reduce their reliance on hotels for temporary accommodation, the Sneyd Arms was still needed.

The council spent more than £500,000 on hotel and B&B accommodation last year, and said it was currently reviewing its rough sleeper and homeless strategy.

Mr Gullis told members of the housing, regeneration and operations scrutiny committee that the issues in Tunstall were specifically linked to single, homeless men with drug or alcohol problems.

"They were either attracting crime into the town, with people seeking to exploit their vulnerability, or they themselves were partaking in drugs and alcohol and acting in a yobbish manner," he said.

He accepted it could be seen as "cruel and callous" to say it shouldn't be used for homeless people at all.

"The young families were not the problem, and so I would be empathetic towards that being able to continue for a short period of time," he said.

"It's about setting a tone and not making Tunstall seem like a dumping ground."

'Not ideal'

Adrian Scarrott, the council's assistant director for housing, said the authority had a legal duty to provide temporary accommodation to homeless people, including individuals with challenging behaviours.

The council recently expanded its dedicated homeless units from 28 to 40, and was looking to procure nightly paid accommodation from a local provider to reduce the use of hotels, he added.

Mr Scarrott said: "We do recognise that hotels aren't ideal. However, in the context of increasing demand, we don't have sufficient capacity within our own stock."

He also said six people had been arrested and charged in connection with a spate of crime in Tunstall in March and April, and none of them had been resident at the Sneyd Arms.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service which covers councils and other public service organisations.