Welsh council issues temporary stop notice to owners of hotel set to accommodate asylum seekers
Carmarthenshire County Council has issued a temporary stop notice to the owners of a hotel that is set to house asylum seekers, after finding part of a hedge had been cut down to create a new access point to the site.
The temporary stop notice follows the High Court’s rejection of an interim injunction application from the council, which sought to block the Home Office from accommodating asylum seekers at the hotel. A permanent injunction hearing is yet to take place.
Cllr. Ann Davies, Cabinet Member
In a statement published on Friday (14 July), Cllr. Ann Davies, Cabinet Member for Planning Policy and Rural Affairs for Carmarthenshire County Council, said: “Carmarthenshire County Council has issued a temporary stop notice to the owners of the Stradey Park Hotel under section 171E of the Town and Country Planning Act 1980.
“The notice relates to the removal of part of a hedge bank bounding the Stradey Park Hotel, along its boundary with Pentre-poeth Road, Furnace. The gap created is being used as an access point and leads directly onto the carriageway of a classified road at a point where there are no pedestrian facilities.”
She added: “The access is therefore considered to be detrimental to pedestrian and highway safety. The notice takes effect immediately and requires the cessation of access by pedestrians.”
The stop notice comes as locals reportedly blocked the entrance to the hotel in protest at its usage following the High Court’s decision last week. Plans to move more than two hundred asylum seekers into the hotel have been delayed by the protests.
Four protestors have reportedly been charged with a public order offence and obstructing the police.
Local Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn
Local Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Dafydd Llywelyn called on the Home Office to pause and review its plans to use the site in light of “serious and escalating tensions” in the area and in light of the ongoing legal disputes.
Writing to Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Thursday last week (13 July), Llywelyn said: “I have also been made aware that legal action and an ‘injunction’ have both been submitted in relation to a disputed entrance that has been created to the side of the hotel grounds.
“There is obvious disagreement as to whether private contractors engaged by the Home Office have a legal entitlement to access the site; this has increased community tensions and resulted in a very substantial police presence at the location since Friday 7th July 2023.”
Adam Carey
