Council considers next move on asylum seeker hotels

Mark Arnull says the council needs to check if the hotel owners had complied with planning law when they took on the Home Office contracts

A council hopes to take further enforcement action against hotels housing asylum seekers, its leader has said.

West Northamptonshire Council issued planning contravention notices to the owners of three hotels earlier this month and has received their replies.

Mark Arnull, leader of the Reform UK-run unitary authority, said it would announce its next steps next week, once its legal and planning teams had gone through the hotel owners' responses.

A rally in support of asylum seekers was held outside a council meeting on Thursday, but Arnull said if the council did not check whether the proprietors had complied with planning law "it sets a dangerous precedent".

A rally was held outside the full council meeting in support of the district's refugees

The hotels are being used by the Home Office as asylum seekers' accommodation.

A rally in support of the asylum seekers was held outside the full council meeting at Northampton's Guildhall on Thursday.

Anjona Roy, secretary of the Northampton & District Trades Union Council, said the issue of asylum seeker hotels had become "a political football".

"The people right at the centre of it are some of the most vulnerable people that are living in our area. A lot of them have come here from appalling situations where they've had to flee from trauma and sometimes torture," she said.

"I expect more from our political leaders. I expect them to be treating all human beings in West Northamptonshire with dignity and respect, regardless of whether they're asylum seekers, refugees, or whether they're not [and] I don't think that's happening."

Anjona Roy said asylum seekers were among some of the most vulnerable people living in the area

Arnull said: "This is about planning case and planning precedent under the Town and County Planning Act 1991.

"They're not being used as hotels; they're not being used in the way they were set out to be — as facilities that provide catering, restaurants and accommodation for fair-paying members of the public to go in and leave at the same time."

A temporary injunction that blocked asylum seekers being housed at The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, was overturned at the Court of Appeal in August.

A full High Court hearing to decide on a permanent injunction for the Bell Hotel is expected in mid-October.

Arnull said it would be "very interesting to see what legal assessment is made there".