‘Extraordinary meeting’ called to discuss asylum seekers plans
IT WILL TAKE PLACE ON NOVEMBER 30
AN “extraordinary meeting” has been called to discuss plans to house asylum seekers in hotels on the Lincolnshire coast.
It comes after reports that as many as five hotels in Skegness are currently housing refugees.
A councillor in the town said The Leisure Hotel on Drummond Road, The Sun Hotel on the seafront and Chatsworth Hotel on the seafront have been housing asylum seekers for around ten months.
County Hotel on North Parade has recently been confirmed to Cllr Danny Brookes as the fourth hotel in Skegness to be taking in asylum seekers and a fifth, The Grand Hotel, is now believed to be doing the same, Lincolnshire Live reports.
Cllr Brookes said people had reported they felt intimidated by “young males” being put in a family resort.
The Home Office say that using hotels to accommodate asylum seekers is “unacceptable” and have labelled it a short-term solution to the problem.
Serco, which has been contracted by the government to provide accommodation for asylum seekers entering the UK, says it is working hard to “move people into dispersed social housing as rapidly as possible”.
A meeting will take place at Tower Gardens Pavillion on Wednesday, November 30, at 7pm. It has been called by Skegness Town Mayor Councillor Tony Tye.
A tweet from Skegness Town Council states: “The Mayor has called an extraordinary meeting to discuss the use of Skegness hotels for the housing of asylum seekers.
“This item will not be discussed at the meetings on November 16 or November 23, 2022.”
MP for Boston and Skegness, Matt Warman, said: “Skegness is not the best place to be putting people who have potentially complex health needs where there’s already big pressures on local health and public services.
“There’s a fundamental issue of fairness and an issue of what’s right for the asylum seekers themselves.”