Peterborough residents demand Home Office rethink on use of The Verve hotel for asylum seekers

Residents in Peterborough are urging the Home Office to review its decision to use The Verve hotel, in Newton Way, Fengate, as a refuge for asylum seekers.

People living in the area around the hotel say they are angry at the lack of consultation with them about the new use of the hotel in Boongate.

The outburst comes after a total of about 150 asylum seekers were placed in The Verve and the Great Northern Hotel in Station Approach over several days from November 11.

Kerry Newton, of Fengate Park, said: “We are angry because there has been no consultation with people already living here.

“No one knows what is going on and people feel vulnerable. There are a lot of elderly people living in this area.

She said: “We really want the Home Office to reconsider its decision about the use of this hotel.”

Their appeal comes as Peterborough City Council has said it will look at using its planning powers to stop the change of use of the Great Northern Hotel to a hostel for asylum seekers.

The Home Office says it refuses to comment on operational arrangements for individual hotels.

But a spokesperson said: “The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain.

“The use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable – there are currently more than 37,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £5.6million a day.

“The use of hotels is a short-term solution and we are working hard with local authorities to find appropriate accommodation.”

Last year, residents in Fengate Park protested at plans by the owners of The Verve to convert the premises into a care home as a specialist private drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre regulated by the Care Quality Commission with treatment programmes ranging from seven days to one month.

At the time, the hotel owners had said that since Brexit and Covid-19, when the majority of the hotel’s regular migrant worker clients returned to their country of origin, the business slumped by 70 per cent as they were the hotel’s core business.