Llanelli MS welcomes Home office decision to withdraw plans for Stradey Park Hotel

The Deputy Minister for Climate Change and MS for Llanelli Lee Waters has issued a statement in the wake of the decision by the Home Office to withdraw plans to house asylum seekers at Stradey Park Hotel.

Llanelli’s elected representative at the Senedd said:

“I’m glad the Home Office have finally seen sense and have realised their plans for Stradey were unworkable and wrong-headed.

But what a mess they have created, and now leave behind.

A cherished hotel has been wrecked by Tory incompetence and it is not clear what the owners now intend to do. They need to put right the damage they have caused.

I think relief will be replaced by resentment if the site is left to rot by disinterested absent owners who have put profiteering before the long-term interests of the business they bought or of the local community. The Home Office need to ensure the hotel is repaired and put back to how it was

There’s also a big project to heal local divisions. The hate groups who have been drawn to Llanelli can now push-off but it will be for the local community to rebuild trust and understanding here.

All in all this really is an outrageous mess that could have been avoided if the Home Office had worked with the Council and Welsh Government instead of stubbornly pushing ahead against all advice. This is a massive failing by the UK Government”