A Derbyshire hotel which has been used as asylum seeker accommodation has become centre of heated debate with officials.
At an Erewash Borough Council meeting last week (Thursday, July 23) councillors debated the continued use of the Best Western Hotel in Sandiacre for asylum seeker accommodation.
The most recent Home Office data, as of March, shows 87 people seeking asylum are being housed in Erewash, with 79 in the hotel, down from 179 in September, with the facility not used for its intended purpose since 2021.
Councillor Paul Maginnis (Ref) said there were still serious concerns about the hotel’s current use, including residents being moved into local HMOs (houses in multiple occupation).
He asked again to push the Government for a timeline for its eventual closure, having filed the same motion in January, which had been rejected by the council.
Cllr Maginnis said: “I am going to keep filing the same motion every six months until people take notice. This is about fairness, safeguarding and costs.
“We have moved our homeless people as far as Birmingham while making space for these men who have been moved into the area.
“British people seem to be at the bottom of the queue. It is a complete and utter invasion of this country.
“The Norman invasion (in 1066, with an army of up to 7,000 men) was 50 times smaller, why are we allowed to call that an invasion and not this?”
Current Home Office statistics show a supported asylum seeker population in the UK of 97,519.
Cllr Dan Price (Ref), who posted the statistics comparing the Norman invasion to the net number of people arriving in the UK by crossing the English Channel in boats on Facebook, had said: “All we are asking is to send a letter. The people of Erewash are concerned about the illegal migrant hotel and illegal migration.
“Reform has flourished because you have failed.”
Cllr Dave Snaith (Lab) said: “The MPs already know about this, the Government is dealing with this. The previous Government stopped processing applicants. We are dealing with it.”
Labour council leader, Cllr James Dawson, said: “This is performance politics rather than actual politics, it is theatre. The Government are dealing with the backlog and there was a commitment in 2025 to close all asylum seeker hotels.
“As a council we have our legal obligations and we have to follow them.
“This motion is creating division not cohesion.”
Cllr Ann Mills (Gre) said: “The people being housed are not illegal migrants but asylum seekers. This is another attempt to demonise the men in the Best Western Hotel, seeking to divide our country.
“We should be showing compassion to people who face the risk of real harm.
“I meet 20 to 30 asylum seekers a week at the hotel and not one of them has ever told me they wished I got raped to death, but ‘concerned citizens’ outside the Best Western have.”
Cllr Wayne Major, Conservative opposition leader, said: “This is an unbelievably important issue. We need to get the basics right and secure our borders.
“Foregin entities are trying to weaponise this issue to divide our nation.
“They may not be illegal but they are breaking the law when they arrive by small boats and bypass our border security.
“My wife is European and is now a British national but I am really scared when people start talking about mass deportation, because that could include my wife and children.
“The Conservative Government should have done more. Labour don’t have a plan, Reform don’t have a plan.
“Writing a letter and putting flags on lampposts is not going to work. That is not a plan.
“I do want the Best Western closed and the asylum seekers either sent home if their applications are revoked or rehoused.
“Let’s be sensible and not allow this to be weaponised and jump to the extreme.”
Cllr Joel Bryan (Lab) said: “We can all agree that hotels are not where we want asylum seekers to be. I hope that it is closed down.
“Illegal migration is too high. There are also lots of people who come here legally.
“This administration takes the issue extremely seriously and the leader has already written to the Home Office.”
Cllr Maginnis said: “It makes me absolutely sick. We keep being told to calm down and be tolerant, this is not performance politics to the people affected.
“I am sorry to hear about your experience, Cllr Mills.”
The motion was rejected for a second time.
By Eddie Bisknell, Local Democracy Reporter
