Northampton hotel back in business after government reduces its Covid red list

A major Northampton hotel is set to open to regular guests again after a three-month government 'takeover'.

The Park Inn in Silver Street, owned by Radisson, is taking bookings from October 18 following weeks of having no rooms available to the general public.

It is understood the hotel's 146 rooms were reserved for UK residents needing to quarantine after returning from trips to 'red list' countries.

But this week's announcement reducing the red list from around 60 countries to just seven appears to have cleared the way for normal service to resume.

This newspaper revealed in July guests had bookings suddenly cancelled and were told “The property has recently been closed due to Coronavirus (Covid-19).“The hotel will be taken over by the Government for Covid purposes.”

Radisson and the hotel were unable to issue a statement and instead directed all enquiries to The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

A DHSC spokesman, however, was unable to publicly confirm or deny that the premises was being used as a quarantine hotel.

Travellers returning from countries such as Brazil, Pakistan, South Africa, Turkey, Tunisia, India were ordered to lock themselves away in a government-approved hotel for 11 nights at a cost of £2,285.

From Monday (October 11) the only countries remaining on the red list are Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.