“Take time to explore the nearby woodland, then return to experience a luxurious treatment in our Spa or delicious cuisine in The Laureate Restaurant, with its stained-glass conservatory overlooking the lake and grounds. The Lounge serves traditional meals in an authentic Victorian setting and the Burns Bar is the perfect spot for a pre-dinner cocktail or a relaxing night cap. Retire for a restful night’s sleep in our comfortable bedrooms, all with en-suite bathroom, tea and coffee facilities, a work desk and complimentary Wi-Fi access.” – extract from the website of the Kilhey Court hotel.
Whether proletarian or bourgeois, the dumping of so-called asylum seekers in hotels up and down the country has been the catalyst for thousands of local protests. Up until recently, the accommodation of choice for the Home Office has been a budget hotel in a working-class suburb or seaside resort. After all, who cares if the locals are upset, they probably don’t vote Tory anyway.
Unfortunately, the cheap and cheerful hotels and B&B’s are nearly full, and the ‘small boat’ invasion continues unabated. And this is what terrifies the Government. They are desperately trying to find accommodation for these economic migrants (army and RAF bases, holiday parks and floating barges to name but a few), before they have to start placing them in the true-blue, Tory-voting Shires. But the sheer weight of numbers may be forcing them to do the unthinkable.
What has been called ‘Wigan’s grandest hotel’, the Kilhey Court at Worthington in Standish, is a 4-star hotel set in 10 acres of land and overlooking Worthington Lakes. According to its website, the Macdonald Kilhey Court is located just 10 minutes’ drive from the M6 and M61 motorways and is within easy reach of Wigan and Bolton.
The local media has reported that the hotel has begun axing staff and that it will be converted to accommodate asylum-seekers within weeks. The first date given for the arrival of its new, taxpayer-funded guests is September 9, 2023.
After that date, the hotel will cease to accommodate guests, including overnight stays, access to the gym and spa facilities, meals, and the hosting of events, such as weddings and christenings. The owner, Macdonald Hotels, is handing over the running of the hotel to SERCO – which is contracted by the Government to run such facilities. As is common at hotels taken over to house migrants, a large fence is to be erected around the Victorian building within days.
Up to 200 asylum-seekers are already being housed at the Britannia, Almond Brook, which is less than three miles away from Kilhey Court. Predictably, there have been numerous claims of schoolgirls’ being watched and harassed in the vicinity of the hotel.*
One local resident was quoted as saying, “This is completely the wrong place for asylum-seeker accommodation. There is no public transport, no shops or a post office. What are these people going to do, and how are they going to integrate? They’ll just be wandering the streets.
*In a previous post we reported that residents around the Britannia Hotel Wigan, had complained that their children, some as young as twelve, were being sexually harassed by Afghans staying at the hotel. View the post here >>
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Image: Macdonald Kilhey Court website.
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