Old Palace Lodge: Dunstable residents demand answers from MP after packed public meeting to discuss shock hotel closure

Dunstable residents have demanded details about when MP for South West Bedfordshire knew that the Home Office was in talks with an iconic hotel to use it to house asylum seekers.

Around 150 people packed a meeting held by Dunstable town councillors Kenson and John Gurney last night (January 25) to share their concerns about the Government takeover of the Old Palace Lodge (OPL).

Among the attendees were other town councillors, Dunstable’s mayor Cllr Liz Jones and people who had their weddings at the hotel cancelled at short notice. On Sunday (January 22), dozens of couples were contacted by OPL and told it would be closing with immediate effect after taking a Government contract.

After the meeting, Cllr John Gurney said: “Everyone who attended showed how passionate and concerned they feel about Dunstable, now that the OPL hotel has been taken over by the Government’s Home Office to accommodate asylum seekers.”

After being approached by Luton News for comment, Mr Selous revealed the Home Office first approached him on December 15 “to say that they had ‘identified’ the OPL as a site to accommodate asylum seekers”.

He said: “I wrote back that day to object saying the town needed to keep the OPL because of the very important role it played in the life and economy of Dunstable.”

He also explained that he had copied in the Leader and Chief Executive of Central Bedfordshire Council that day and had immediately contacted the owners of the hotel. They told Mr Seelous that they had not made any decision and would not do so until the New Year.

The MP said: “I asked the owners if I could help in any way to keep the hotel open to the public. They told me that low room occupancy, their pandemic period debts, and high energy costs, in spite of significant government rebates were all combined to threaten the survival of the hotel.”

Conservative MP Andrew Selous was unable to attend the meeting, pointing out he was only invited on the morning of the meeting, which was a day Parliament was sitting. Cllr Gurney said: “They [the residents] wanted to ask our MP, Andrew Selous, who declined to attend the meeting, why he hadn’t tried to stop this happening. Why he hadn’t enlisted the help and support of both Central Bedfordshire and Dunstable Town Councils to fight this right from the start when he was first told?”

Cllr Gurney added: "It is now down to Andrew Selous to provide all the answers the good people of Dunstable demand.”

Mr Selous said that he has supported OPL for many years in a professional and personal capacity, with family and friends staying there for my daughter’s two-year delayed wedding reception.

He added: “I get the anger of those whose precious family events have been cancelled. I look forward to the OPL reopening after what the hotel refer to as a “hopefully… short lived “period“ to ensure the survival of this much-loved business.”

The mayor explained that she had emailed Mr Selous during the meeting to ask him to organise a public meeting to address the issues facing the people of Dunstable. Mr Selous said: “If my constituents want a public meeting about this I am happy to arrange this.”

He added: “The government is urgently seeking unused student and holiday camp accommodation, as it does not want to use hotels for asylum seekers. The government will also legislate shortly to change the law so that it will not be possible to remain in the UK if you enter illegally to deal with this national emergency.”

There also been outrage after a Union Flag was taken down from the front of the hotel.

The South West Bedfordshire MP reassured residents, saying that he would do everything that he could to make people aware of other local venues who may be able to accommodate them.

"I completely understand how upset people are at having their plans overturned for much looked forward to family events as so many of us went through that experience during Covid, including my own family.”