Hotel warned over use as asylum seeker hostel Council gives go-ahead for extension to historic landmark
ABIRMINGHAM hotel has been warned it will need extra planning permission if it wants to become an asylum seeker hostel again.
The warning came as the historic Paragon Hotel in Highgate was given the go-ahead for four-storey extensions with an extra 99 rooms.
New owners of the hotel, the family of Iraqi billionaire Narim El-Akabi, have confirmed they are investing millions in the Paragon and will relaunch it as a luxury hotel.
But just over a year ago it was home to more than 230 asylum seekers, placed there by private contractor G4S.
Councillor Tahir Ali (Lab, Nechells) said: “It became a dumping ground for asylum seekers, almost the Midlands entire allocation in one place. Residents were not against having a fair share.
“But we need to prevent that from happening again.“
Cllr Gareth Moore (Cons, Erdington) said: “It’s quite clear there was very slow progress cracking down here.
“It was being used without planning consent.”
Council chief planning officer Richard Goulborn said that the planning enforcement team had worked with the immigration service and Home Office to deal with the hotel’s use as an asylum seeker’s hostel and admitted that the it had taken “too long”.
He said there are now links in place and “we would be able to act more quickly if ever there was a repeat”.
He said that any use as an asylum hostel would require a fresh planning application and added: “The new owners are moving to a redevelopment of what is a beautiful building.
“The elements put into this are well-designed so as not to detract from the building. This scheme will bring the hotel back into use in an enhanced and enlarged form and we welcome that.”
The Paragon Hotel has been criticised by reviewers on Trip Advisor in the past.
But the new plans will see it redeveloped as a quality conference and wedding venue and tourist hotel, capitalising on the major investment in Highgate and Digbeth because of HS2, the Metro extension and Connaught Square development.