After a controversial plan to house 240 asylum seekers, a hotel in Carmarthenshire, Wales, has been deemed unsafe for anyone to stay following a fire inspection. Over the weekend, protests erupted over the Stradey Park Hotel plan, leading to a stairwell fire that resulted in six arrests. Mid and West Wales Fire Service discovered safety issues on the ground floor and issued a banning order. The notice will remain valid until formally appealed, but renovations will be permitted to continue. The fire service has said that a change of use warranted the inspection.
The hotel’s owner, Gryphon Leisure, has been prohibited from using the premises for sleeping accommodation due to insufficient fire separation and a lack of means of detecting a fire. The notice also bans anyone from using any part of the building except to carry out remedial work. Clearsprings Ready Homes, which has a contract to provide the accommodation, refused to comment on the inspection and instead directed any inquiries to the Home Office.
The Furnace Action Committee, which is protesting the plan, has not yet responded to inquiries. Similarly, neither Carmarthenshire council nor the Home Office have yet released statements on the situation. The hotel’s ground floor must be renovated before the banning order can be lifted, meaning further delays may occur.
After issues raised by fire inspections, efforts have been made to improve the safety standards of buildings used to house asylum seekers and refugees across the UK. These inspections follow safety incidents in other housing accommodations for refugees and asylum seekers
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