On the evening of Friday 17th March there was a more than good attendance at an extraordinary Parish Council meeting in Hereford to discuss the worries surrounding the Home Office’s decision to commandeer The Three Counties Hotel in Belmont, Hereford to house those who have illegally entered the United Kingdom.
As I said the meeting was very well attended with the Hereford Voice reporter who was present saying that there were about one hundred attendees. I suspect that this is a considerably higher number than would normally attend a Belmont Parish Council meeting.
On the subject of the Hereford Voice, if anyone either in the local area or nationwide is following this story, then the Hereford Voice seems to be one of the good places to go to get more information on it. From what I can see Hereford Voice are doing some excellent quality local journalism. They are breaking stories often earlier than either the establishment local paper the Hereford Times or other local news websites. What’s more is that many of these early broken stories appear to be accurate, which is good as sometimes accuracy can be damaged by running a story too early, before necessary facts are in, something that is the curse of all rolling news outlets. Hereford Voice is in my view a pretty good model of how to run a local news website and should be looked at by those who are thinking of setting up something similar.
On the matter of the Extraordinary Parish Council meeting the Hereford Voice said:
In attendance was Herefordshire Council leader Mr David Hitchener, Jesse Norman’s PA, a Superintendent and Inspector with additional officers from West Mercia Police, a representative from Hereford Medical Group and local Councillors. There was no representation from Serco or the hotel.
There was a reasonable turnout of about 100 people in total.
At times the debate got heated as people expressed their concerns and frustrations about Asylum Seekers being accommodated on a full board basis at the Three Counties Hotel on Belmont Road, Hereford.
Some people welcomed the opportunity to give these people Asylum while many others raised some genuine concerns with their questions and worries.
Some people and new councillors also used this as an opportunity for some political point scoring which did not go unnoticed.
The panel were often unable to provide answers to many of the questions being asked and promised to attempt to answer as many over the coming weeks. In fairness, the Home Office have provided very little information.
Hereford Voice suggested to the panel that maybe it would be an idea to call another extraordinary meeting in the coming 6-8 weeks to return with as many answers to these questions as possible. By then the hotel guests will have settled in and the Council and representatives will be in a much better position to respond. Furthermore, MP Jesse Norman and MP Bill Wiggin will have more notice than just the week that they were given to attend.
It certainly seems to be the case that the Home Office have shafted the councils responsible for the area and caused an awful lot of worry for local people. I really can’t see any good outcome for all this I really can’t. I do see trouble brewing ahead unfortunately.
Addendum:
It seems that the council are expecting some anti social behaviour from the unwanted guests who are being placed in the Three Counties Hotel as evidenced by this letter that has gone out to people in the immediate vicinity of the new illegal migrant hell hole that the Home Office is creating. The mayor no less, seems to be expecting an uptick in crime and disorder over this issue. See screen shot of letter put out by the Mayor and highlighted by Hereford Voice.
