Furious locals protesting say asylum hotel changes in Surrey are a 'ticking time bomb'
Furious protestors descended onto the Stanwell Hotel in Surrey after the Home Office confirmed it was changing the currently mixed accommodation building to one that will exclusively house male migrants.
Over a hundred protestors gathered outside the hotel on Town Lane on Thursday (July 31).
Signs reading ’Protect our Children’ and ‘Just say No’, while some were heard chanting “get them out”, as police monitored the demonstration.
The Stanwell Hotel has been used to house single women and families seeking asylum in the village.
Councillors and residents said the existing group of families at the hotel were integrating well and building community ties through the local school and the park.
But removing the families and replacing them with single adult men could disrupt community cohesion, they said.
In a letter sent to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Spelthorne Borough Council leader Joanne Sexton raised serious concerns regarding changes to the Stanwell Hotel, claiming they were done without consultation.
Some families and women from the hotel have already been moved out of Spelthorne and sent to ‘dispersal houses’ in Norfolk or Scotland, the LDRS understands.
Home Office officials reportedly spoke to the council on August 1 regarding the plans. The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands- although temporarily on hold- the scheme will go ahead.
Sam Jennings, who lives near the hotel said: “It’s a ticking bomb around Stanwell. It’s a tight knit community and no man will let women feel unsafe in their own town.”
He said: “Imagine all these unvetted single fighting-aged males flooding our community […] this cannot happen in our town and people will be protesting day after day after day until its reversed.”
Mr Jennings explained the hotel is next to a skate park and a playing field as well as nearby a nursery and a school.
He said: “If these men inside [the hotel] are harassing the women and children, what will they do when they are all grouped together and walk around in groups?”
The protest comes in an already charged atmosphere as demonstrations continue outside a migrant hotel in Epping, Essex, where an Ethiopian male asylum seeker has been charged with assaulting a teenager.
Speaking after the Stanwell protest, Cllr Karen Howkins said: “It’s not the right place to send the young men: it’s in a highly residential area and next to playing fields.”
The Conservative member for Laleham and Shepperton Green has launched a petition to stop the asylum accommodation changes to the hotel.
“Everything in Stanwell has been geared towards families who have their problems,” said Cllr Howkins.
“Not for adult men with nothing to do that have been kicked out of a hotel during the day.”
Cllr Howkins said residents have told her they do not feel safe letting their children go on the playing fields or to the park.
Cllr Howkins said: “I wish that everybody could be trusted but unfortunately that is not the impression society gives us.”
A Home Office spokesperson said the government wants to close all hotels by the end of Parliament and will “continue to work closely with community partners”.
They said: “We will continue to work closely with community partners across the country, and discuss any concerns they have, as we look to fix this broken system together.
“The security of the local communities within which hotels are located will always be our paramount concern.”
The Home Office has been asked for further comment.