Coventry hotel ordered to remove asylum seekers

The council claims the hotel has conducted a "material change of use" without planning approval

A village hotel has been ordered to remove asylum seekers housed under a government contract.

The Allesley Hotel has been accused by Coventry City Council of operating as a hostel without planning approval.

A third Coventry hotel housing asylum seekers would be "disproportionate for a city our size", the authority stated.

The hotel said it was in the process of seeking legal advice. The Home Office said it encouraged all local authorities to work with it.

The hotel on Birmingham Road in Coventry is housing asylum seekers as part of a Home Office contract, but the council said this had been done "without proper consultation".

A temporary stop notice has been issued to the hotel which orders it to remove asylum seekers from its premises by 12:00 BST on 3 September.

It had also been told to stop using the premises as a hostel by then, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Over the years the hotel has been used by the council to provide temporary accommodation to homeless people.

In housing asylum seekers, the authority claims the hotel has conducted a "material change of use" without planning approval.

Giving reasons in the notice, the council said the city now had more than 500 asylum seekers in temporary hotels.

Deputy leader Abdul Salam Khan said a decision to take legal action "was not taken lightly".

He said Coventry had been "a voluntary asylum dispersal city since 1999", but specialist health services and local charities were "already struggling to support and manage the demand from those in existing hotels".

A temporary stop notice has been issued to the hotel

Allesley Hotel manager Naushad Busawon, speaking on behalf of the owners, said "we were very surprised to receive a formal notice from the council without any prior warning" requiring the removal of "a vulnerable group of people" seeking asylum from persecution abroad.

The manager added the notice required "all said residents leave by a week on Friday" which was "an extremely short" timescale.

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"We are in the process of seeking legal advice with a view to exploring what can be done to challenge this notice."

A Home Office spokesman said due to unprecedented demand, it had had to use temporary accommodation such as hotels to manage demands on the asylum estate.

The spokesman said: "We encourage all local authorities to work with us to support providing accommodation in their areas for those who are resettled or claim asylum in the UK."