Cambridgeshire Mayor Paul Bristow has written to the Home Secretary demanding urgent action over the continued use of the Dragonfly Hotel in Peterborough to house asylum seekers.
The hotel, currently accommodating 146 single men who arrived in the UK via small boats, has become a flashpoint for local concern. Bristow argues the site is “wholly unsuitable” due to its location in a residential area with limited services and amenities, and says Peterborough is already hosting more asylum seekers than any other part of the East of England.
The Dragonfly is being used to accommodate 146 single men who have crossed the Channel on small boats. This is utterly inappropriate
Bristow posted on social media alongside the letter.
In his message, the mayor criticised Peterborough’s two Labour MPs, Andrew Pakes and Sam Carling, for refusing to meet with him to discuss a joint approach. “They are burying their heads in the sand,” he wrote. “The Government have announced they will not stand down hotels until 2029. This is intolerable.”
As a former MP for the city, Bristow previously succeeded in having the Great Northern Hotel removed from use as migrant accommodation. He says he is now taking this issue “to the top” by calling on the Home Secretary to meet him directly and intervene where local representatives have, in his view, failed.
