Home Office to no longer use hotel for asylum seekers

A controversial asylum seeker hotel is being shut down by the Home Office.

The Park Hotel in Diss has been at the centre of a row in recent weeks after plans emerged to replace asylum-seeking families who have been living there for two years with single males.

The announcement resulted in outrage and the bid was quickly thrown into chaos, with the hotel revealing it would close rather than allow the government to move the men in.

South Norfolk Council has been pushing for the bid to be withdrawn, and for the families to be allowed to stay, and has wielded planning enforcement powers in an attempt to shut down the move.

But after weeks of being stuck in a stalemate with the authority and refusing to back down, the Home Office has now announced the hotel will not be used to house asylum seekers at all.

It is understood that officials have already begun moving people out of the building and they will be relocated to other parts of the asylum estate, though it is not clear where. 

Daniel Elmer, leader of South Norfolk Council, said: “The Home Office thought it could just impose the change from families to single males and that we would accept it.

“But there is a right way of doing things and a wrong way and the decision by the Home Office was just plain wrong.

“The council had to make a stand to support the women and children and our local community and that’s exactly what we did.

“Although I welcome the decision, in reality it does mean that the women and children who we fought so hard to protect will now be moved elsewhere, and that is a shame.

“South Norfolk, and Diss in particular, has always opened its arms to people in need and that’s something that should make us all very proud.”

There have been heightened tensions across the region with protests also taking place at the Brook Hotel in Bowthorpe, Norwich, and in Watton, where the renovation of an empty hotel sparked rumours it would be used to house asylum seekers.

Another protest is set to take place at the Brook Hotel on Sunday (August 24).

The future of the hotel remains unclear.