North Northamptonshire Council applies for injunction to prevent Home Office using Kettering's Royal Hotel to house asylum seekers

A council has applied for an injunction to prevent Kettering’s iconic Royal Hotel from being used to accommodate asylum seekers.

The Home Office wants to use the Market Place venue – which once welcomed Queen Victoria – as a base for those who have come to the UK to stay in while their refugee claim is assessed.

But North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) has made an application to the High Court for an interim injunction aimed at stopping the proposal and to allow time to assess alternative locations.

Cllr Jason Smithers (Con), leader of North Northamptonshire Council said: “North Northamptonshire Council takes its responsibility to asylum seekers very seriously.

"The council has previously offered to have discussions with the Home Office to help identify suitable hotels in the area.

“However, the Royal Hotel in Kettering is not an appropriate place to accommodate asylum seekers for a number of reasons.

"We do not feel the proposals have been properly considered to ensure the best possible service can be provided to asylum seekers and the local communities in which they are housed. I felt it was important to take action which was a decision we have not taken lightly.”

The plan was brought to the council’s attention on October 27 and they were given a ‘mobilisation date’ yesterday, but the date has not been revealed.

NNC has also issued a temporary stop notice on the hotel, directing them not to use it as an asylum seeker hotel.

Cllr Anne Lee, Labour’s sole Kettering representative on the council, said she had not been told about the plan and only received an email informing her of the situation for the first time seven minutes before the council released a statement to the media.

She said: “I am not opposed to migrants coming to local hotels – they have got to go somewhere – but I have heard concerns from residents about the Royal Hotel.

"I would have concerns about whether it would be a proper place for vulnerable people to be accommodated.”

A spokesman for charity Kettering Refugee Assistance added: “We are pleased that North Northamptonshire Council is taking its responsibility to refugees seriously. However, we need to make sure that the Home Office is going through the process properly and not putting their responsibilities onto local authorities.

"The numbers and types of refugees must be clarified and agreed. It is essential that a proper safety inspection, including the views of the police, establishes that the accommodation is appropriate for the numbers proposed, will have the necessary facilities, space and security for a group of very vulnerable people before any action is taken.”

The hotel had been bought by investment firm Paymán Investments, who wanted to restore it to its former glory and make it a community hub, in a £2.2m deal last year.

The 42-bed hotel, once known as the White Hart, has changed hands multiple times since the turn of the century.

It was rebuilt in the Jacobean style in 1878 by the Duke of Buccleuch, who sold it to brewers Pickering, Phipps and Co in 1896.

Charles Dickens, who was covering a by-election in 1835 as a Morning Chronicle reporter, once stayed there. The hotel's name changed in 1844 when Queen Victoria stopped there on her way to Stamford.

The proposal comes six weeks after we revealed that Corby’s Rockingham Forest Best Western Hotel was earmarked to become accommodation for asylum seekers, with weddings cancelled and planned functions called off.

But just days later, after a furious reaction from local people, the plan was ditched.

Hundreds of refugees have recently been moved from an immigration centre in Manston, Kent, after concerns that it had become dangerously overcrowded. A total of 4,000 people had been held at the site, designed for just 1,600.

A Home Office spokesman said they could not comment on legal proceedings or operational arrangements for individual sites used for asylum accommodation, but that there are currently more than 37,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the taxpayer £5.6m a day.

The spokesman said: “The number of people arriving in the UK who seek asylum and require accommodation has reached record levels, placing unprecedented pressures on the asylum system.

“The Home Office and partners identify sites for accommodation based on whether they are safe and available. While we accept that hotels do not provide a long-term solution, they do offer safe, secure and clean accommodation, and we are working hard with local authorities to find appropriate accommodation during this challenging time.”