A 67-bedroom four-star hotel in Cambridgeshire which was used to house asylum seekers has become one of the first in the country to be handed back by the Government. The Dolphin Hotel in St Ives on the banks of the River Great Ouse has begun a massive refurbishment.
It is owned by US-based hotel operator Aston Management Company who bought it in 2017 from Simon Wadsworth. The hotel was the first acquisition for the company’s UK arm, Cambridgeshire Hotels Ltd.
Skips were today (Wed) being filled at the with mattresses and carpets as the hotel guts its rooms, ready to re-open to visitors.
Asylum seekers to be moved from Wisbech, Peterborough and St Ives hotels
Builders were hard at work in the premises as deliveries of tiles and other furnishings were made.
The hotel was given a Government contract to house asylum seekers a year ago.
But in October the Government announced that the first 50 hotels across the UK will stop housing asylum seekers by the end of January after a 20 per cent drop in small boat crossings compared to last year.
They said initial efforts would focus on hotels which could be exited quickly, with asylum seekers being moved to other parts of the UK’s asylum estate, including the Bibby Stockholm barge.
Jonathan Djanogly, MP for Huntingdon, said in October: “I’m sure the people of Huntingdonshire will be pleased that this hotel can once again begin to serve the community and get back to business.
“Hotels are valuable assets in any community and utilising this hotel for asylum seekers was necessary but was only ever there to serve as a short-term solution. This positive move will have an impact on businesses and tourism and remove the pressure on local public services.”
The Great Northern Hotel, Peterborough, and the Rose and Crown Hotel, Wisbech, have also been used to house asylum seekers; they too are being handed back to their owners.
