Peterborough man arrested during protest outside city's Dragonfly Hotel in use as asylum seekers' refuge
A Peterborough man has been arrested during a protest outside the city’s Dragonfly Hotel.
Police say the man, who is in his 40s, was arrested on Friday (August 5) on suspicion of public order offences.
The man, whose identity has not been revealed, was released on bail until December.
It is understood the man was part of a protest that was being staged outside the Dragonfly Hotel, in Thorpe Meadows, which is currently being used as a refuge for asylum seekers.
About 146 asylum seekers were moved into the iconic lakeside hotel in November last year.
The decision by the Home Office to move asylum seekers into the Dragonfly prompted complaints from Peterborough City Council and the Labour MPs from Peterborough and North West Cambridgeshire.
They claimed the hotel was in an inappropriate location and came at a time when the local authority’s resources were stretched as the city was well above its Dispersed Accommodation quota.
The council stated that the city was already ‘housing far more than our share of asylum seekers than other areas of the country.'