Blackpool hotel needs planning permission for asylum seekers

Housing asylum seekers at the Metropole Hotel constitutes a "material change of use", the council said

The owners of a hotel in Blackpool have been told planning permission will be required before the building can be used house asylum seekers.

The Metropole Hotel was due to receive 223 asylum seekers on Friday - a figure which then rose to 324 - but the relocation has now been "paused".

Blackpool Council said housing them constituted a "material change of use".

Refugee Action said hotels were "never appropriate to house people seeking asylum for long periods of time".

Blackpool Council said it had been advised by the Home Office that people would be moved into temporary accommodation at the seafront hotel.

Local MPs previously said the decision to house asylum seekers in the seaside resort was "disproportionate and damaging".

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Blackpool Council leader Lynn Williams said the Home Office had refused to give out information about the conditions asylum seekers would be living in, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

She said the Home Office and Serco, which provides accommodation for asylum seekers on behalf of the government, had been unable to allay concerns from the council, police, fire and ambulance authorities and their concerns had "escalated".

She said: "Yesterday we gave notice to the Metropole and its owners that using the Metropole to house asylum seekers constitutes to a material change of use and planning permission is required before they proceed.

"If they do proceed we will issue a temporary stop notice immediately, which means if they continue to provide accommodation that is unlawful."

But the council later said the relocation had been "paused" though it understood the Home Office's "wholly inappropriate and ill-conceived placement" was still being pursued.

Tim Naor Hilton, chief executive of the Refugee Action charity, said the government needed "to fast get a grip on asylum accommodation, and make sure refugees are housed in safe homes close to services and support networks while they wait for a decision on their claim".

The Home Office 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."

Britannia Hotels, the company which runs the Metropole Hotel, has been approached for a comment.