Council to assess if planning laws broken on asylum hotels

DERBY City Council will assess whether two hotels housing asylum seekers have broken any planning laws and will take enforcement or legal action where necessary.

- 

Following a heated debate on Wednesday, a casting vote from the Liberal Democrat mayor, Cllr Ajit Singh Atwal, broke a deadlock to see the authority take steps to assess the city's two asylum seeker hotels for potential planning breaches.

Home Office data shows Derby is accommodating 329 asylum seekers in two hotels, the Midland Hotel and the Station Hotel.

Cllr Steve Hassell, Conservative group leader, brought a motion calling for the council to take direct steps to assess the two hotels for potential breaches and to take action where necessary, along with keeping a log of relevant incidents.

During the debate, Cllr Hardyal Dhindsa, Labour, said no complaints about the two facilities had been received by the authority in the six years they have been operating.

The motion was referred to as a “fishing” exercise which played on “fear” by Labour's leader, Cllr Nadine Peatfield.

Cllr Alan Graves, Reform’s Derbyshire County Council leader, made uncorroborated claims that the hotels were housing “opportunist economic migrants and an element of criminal migrant”.

Kicking off the debate, Cllr Hassell referred to a YouGov poll that found 58 per cent of people felt immigration was one of the most important issues facing the country, with 51 per cent saying the economy and 29 per cent saying health.