A small group of campaigners with placards have congregated outside a Llanelli hotel this morning, following the news that around 100 employees there will be made redundant next month. The Stradey Park Hotel is gearing up for the expected arrival of 241 asylum seekers, who will be housed across 76 rooms at the hotel, in the coming weeks - and staff members have been told they will no longer have jobs once the asylum seekers arrive.
It's understood workers were informed of the news by senior staff members, who have also been made redundant, following an email from hotel owners on Tuesday, June 27. Employees said they'd been told their last day working at the hotel would be Monday, July 10. You can get more Carmarthenshire news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
One worker, who asked not to be named, claimed: "We were called to a last minute meeting on Tuesday morning and were given the news that everyone would be made redundant with the last day being July 10. It was some of the managers who have been made redundant themselves who had to deliver the news. There was just complete shock. Thankfully, we have had a lot of support locally but it just doesn't make sense."
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Today, around a dozen protesters braved the rain to stand outside the hotel with placards which read: "Stop the Home Office Financing Russians!!! Save The Stradey Park Hotel & 100 Jobs". The 'Russians' placard is linked to reports that overseas investors in the hotel include a Russian national. You can read more about that here.
The protesters are understood to be members of the Furnace Action Committee, a group set up earlier this year to fight to save the hotel and jobs and to object to the plans for the hotel to house asylum seekers, on the grounds of health and safety, planning, and the impact on public services and the wider community.
A spokesperson for the group, Robert Lloyd, previously labelled the redundancies "callous and mercenary". “Over the last five weeks, since the plan was first made public, we have had lies, lies and more damn lies,” Mr Lloyd said.
He added: “The owners, Sterling Woodrow (Gryphon Leisure Ltd) consistently said they had no contract in place with the Home Office and the company in charge of their asylum seeker accommodation operations in Wales, Clearsprings Ready Homes. For weeks they said it was business as usual. To dismiss staff without consultation is callous and mercenary."
Carmarthenshire Council leader Darren Price said last week that groups of up to 55 asylum seekers would start arriving at the hotel from July 10. He said he felt it was "disgraceful" for the Home Office to push on with its "unwise move" and said the proposed use of the hotel was "completely inappropriate" - though he did add that the council was not opposed to supporting asylum seekers and refugees and that it had a good track record on this front with a dispersed model of accommodation.
The Home Office has been asked repeated questions about the use of the hotel and regarding other specific issues, such as the alleged Russian link. A spokesman has offered the same statement every time: “The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain. We have been clear that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable – there are currently more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £6 million a day."
"We engage with local authorities as early as possible whenever sites are used for asylum accommodation and work to ensure arrangements are safe for hotel residents and local people," the spokesperson added. "We are working closely to listen to the local communities’ views and reduce the impact of sites, including through providing on-site security and financial support."
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