March 27, 2023 9.00 pm This story is over 12 months old

Skegness hotel suffers cancellations over people’s asylum seeker worries

Continued debate in the Lincolnshire town

The owner of family-run hotel in Skegness said she’s had to endure cancellations from people who have seen reports about asylum seekers in the town.

East Lindsey District Council Leader Craig Leyland recently said he hoped the plans for an asylum seeker camp at RAF Scampton would mean an end of hotel use.

The debate over asylum seekers has caused a lot of controversy in Skegness and there are reports of a battle of legal action against the government to free up some hotels for tourists once again.

The North Parade Hotel in Skegness. | Screenshot: BBC Look North

Julieanne Bunce, co-owner of The North Parade Hotel in Skegness, told BBC Look North: “I’m having cancellations because people have seen it on the news and it’s people that came last year.

“I said ‘but they were here last year’. ‘No they weren’t. ‘Well yes they were, they didn’t bother you’. ‘Well I didn’t know they were here’, well that’s my point exactly.”

Council leader Craig Leyland said: “We’re very aware of local concerns from residents. We’re also very aware about the impact of having hotels taken out of the tourist market so we want to make sure that those hotels are returned to their normal use as quickly as possible, and because of that we’re going to be taking enforcement action to look at returning them to hotels rather than hostels.”

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