The Home Office has abandoned its plans to use Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli, west Wales, as accommodation for up to 242 asylum seekers. The move was opposed by Carmarthenshire council which received written confirmation from the Home Office that the plan had been scrapped. Last week, the fire service declared the hotel unsafe for use as sleeping accommodation, citing insufficient fire separation and warning means, and issued a prohibition notice to hotel owner, Gryphon Leisure.
The plans, which had been the subject of protests and an unsuccessful injunction application by the council, had caused division and resulted in around 100 job losses. Council leader, Darren Price, described the withdrawal as “the right decision” for the community. MP for Llanelli, Dame Nia Griffith, welcomed the cancellation of the scheme which she believed was “the wrong decision all along”.
A spokesperson for the Furnace Action Committee, which had opposed the plans, said that while the majority of protesters had been peaceful, some arrests had been made. The council said it would continue to use its dispersal model to provide sanctuary for people in desperate need, a scheme that it claimed had been successful for several years in the county.
Related Topics: Asylum seekers accommodatio
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More