Metropole Hotel one of five Serco sites which will close in coming months

Serco begins redundancy process after hotel confirmed for closure

Hello and welcome to The Blackpool Lead.

It was relief all round this week when it was confirmed that The Metropole Hotel will close in July.

Whether wanting the hotel to be used for tourism purposes, believing it is unfit for any humans or just being against the very idea of providing asylum, there has been near unanimous opposition to the hotel being used as a temporary home for refugees since September 2019.

In today’s edition, we look at some of the context behind the move and have been able to get hold of the specific date the hotel will close.

There are details in this story that no other publication has been able to report. Journalism isn’t free to produce and we can only keep doing it with more support from paid subscribers.

Blackpool briefing

⚽ A multi-million pound community sports village for Blackpool has taken a major step forward as new details on the project emerge. A planning application for the Revoe Community Sports Village project, which is primarily funded by £6.5 million from the UK Government’s Town Deal, has this week been submitted to Blackpool Council, which is working with Blackpool FC and Blackpool FC Community Trust. The scheme includes the provision of two 7- a-side synthetic 3G football pitches, two padel courts and a Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA) and associated floodlighting. A 3G (third-generation) football pitch is a modern, high-performance synthetic turf surface designed to replicate natural grass, featuring long fibres (40mm-60mm) infilled with sand and rubber crumb. They offer durable, all-weather play for training and competitive matches. In addition, the plans also include proposed enclosures and boundary treatments, hard and soft landscaping, car parking and installation of two storage containers and associated works.

🏠 Planners at Blackpool have thrown out proposals to turn a three-bedroom house in South Shore into holiday accommodation have been lodged with planners. The applicants were seeking planning permission for a change of use of the existing residential property at 5 Hill Street, Blackpool, from Class C3 (residential dwelling) to self-contained serviced holiday accommodation. Holiday Accommodation planning guidelines establish a clear presumption against new holiday accommodation outside designated areas, unless exceptional circumstances justify such a departure. This is particularly the case given Blackpool’s current housing shortage.

🪨 The RNLI have raised serious safety concerns and are formally objecting to plans to include rock groynes on Blackpool’s beaches as part of a major coastal protection scheme. The proposed Blackpool Beach Management scheme is a £57m investment in the town’s coastal defences, which aims to protect homes and businesses from flooding and preserve the resort’s golden sandy beaches for future generations. Amidst a warning that the sands could be lost forever if not protected, the application seeks planning permission for the installation of 17 groynes, with associated structures and periodic beach recharge works. But last month. Cllr Gerard Walsh voiced concerns that the rock structures were not safe, citing serious incidents elsewhere in which children had become trapped in the rocks, including a tragic drowning. Blackpool Council, which is driving the scheme with funding from the Environment Agency and delivery by Balfour Beatty, argues that the groynes are the most effective way to prevent coastal erosion.

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Metropole Hotel one of five Serco sites which will close in coming months

The Metropole Hotel

By Luke Beardsworth

The Metropole Hotel will be one of five hotels to be closed for the use of housing asylum seekers in the coming months.

It was announced this week that the Metropole Hotel would close by the end of July with both Chris Webb, MP for Blackpool South, and Blackpool Council giving positive reactions to the news.

Webb appeared on GB News on Thursday (16 April). The broadcaster badged the story, announced on social media at 8am, as an exclusive and said that the Metropole would be the 12th hotel to close after the 11 that were closed this week.

But The Blackpool Lead has learned that three other hotels will close in the coming weeks and another on the same day.

They are the OYO Evesham Hotel on 31 May, the Britannia Ashley Hotel on 30 June, The Chimney House Hotel on 30 June and the Britannia Nottingham on 13 July.

The Metropole in Blackpool will close on 13 July.

Emails sent by Serco - one of the firms who manage the housing of asylum seekers in the UK - to staff say that the five hotels will close because The Home Office has chosen not to extend the contracts that it has with the company.

Serco has also started a formal redundancy process as a result of the closures.