Plans by the Home Office to use a Bathgate hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers have been scrapped.
The council had been told that up to 81 single men predominantly from the Middle East or Africa would be accommodated at the Cairn Hotel while their asylum applications were processed.
The council was first advised six weeks ago that the Cairn would be used as an asylum hotel.
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However this week it emerged that no agreement had been made and that the Cairn would not be accepting asylum seekers.
The Home Office would not comment on why the hotel was not to be used, or confirm whether other sites in West Lothian were being considered. And a spokeswoman for the Blackburn Road hotel said only that the firm: “fully understand the implications of the reputation of a hotel once it had been leased in this capacity.”
The news came just a week after the council’s director of Health and Social Care outlined government plans to use the hotel to accommodate those awaiting decisions on whether they would be allowed to stay in the UK.
Alison White spoke to a meeting organised by West Lothian’s Voluntary Sector Gateway about the formation of a help directory for Ukrainian refugees and for those helping them to resettle.
She said that alongside preparations to receive refugees fleeing the war: “the Home Office has been in contact with West Lothian to advise that they will be setting up what they are referring to as an asylum hotel.”
The accommodation is managed for the Home Office by a firm called Mears. It is responsible for the day to day running of asylum hotels. The council would have had no input.
A spokesperson for a PR firm acting on behalf of the Cairn said: “The Cairn is a public hotel, however under the same umbrella of Hannigan Hotels we also operate the Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk, which is currently leased to a private company that houses asylum seekers within the property. It’s my guess that this is potentially where the confusion lies. The Cairn has no asylum seekers, as I mentioned it is private guests only at that property.”
She added: “We have been in touch with the company that leases The Cladhan Hotel in Falkirk to ask if they know anything. They have confirmed that THEY had approached West Lothian Council with a view to then approaching us if they were successful with their application.
“When we leased the Cladhan, it was a derelict hotel, unused due to Covid for over two years. We had no problems leasing it to this company.
“The Cairn, however, is a trading and successful hotel - we fully understand the implications of the reputation of a hotel once it had been leased in this capacity and we have not approached the council about this type of lease at all.”
A spokeswoman for the Home Office told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “The Cairn is not being used. I cannot go into operational details or matters but I can confirm the hotel is not being used for asylum seekers.”
Again citing “operational matters”, she said she could not comment on whether other hotels in the county might be considered.
A spokesman for West Lothian Council said: “We have been advised by Mears that the hotel provider has made the decision not to sign the contract to allow this to be procured by the Home Office through Mears.”
Mears was contacted for comment.
