Tensions grow in Skegness after ‘migrant’ charged with raping woman in park 

The suspected rape of a woman in a park in Skegness has heightened tensions over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers in the seaside town. 

MailOnline can reveal that four of the town’s hotels which previously provided beds for holidaymakers are currently accommodating an estimated 250 migrants. 

Local councillors and traders complained this week that the continuing use of the hotels was damaging the reputation of Skegness as a friendly family resort. 

Hoteliers claim that many of their long standing customers have been cancelling bookings because they are worried about the number of migrants in the town. 

Three of the run down hotels being used by asylum seekers – the County, Chatsworth and the Sun Hotel – are all in prime spots on a 150 yard stretch of seafront in North Parade. 

The hotels overlook bowling greens, an ornamental gardens, a pub in a fake castle and an Arnold Palmer crazy golf course with views of the town famous sandy beach and the sea. 

They stand alongside other hotels which remain open to the town’s paying guests, many of them elderly people from Midlands and northern towns and cities who loyally visit every year. 

The bright lights of amusement arcades, the town’s pier, fast food outlets and the Pleasure Beach amusement park are only a short walk away on the same stretch of road. 

This week MailOnline found individual asylum seekers and others in small groups sitting in the sunshine or smoking on the porches or front gardens of their accommodation. 

All seemed friendly and polite and happy to exchange greetings with passers-by, despite speaking poor English. 

The fourth hotel housing asylum seekers is called The Leisure and is opposite an Italian restaurant in nearby residential Drummond Road, just 200 yards from the town’s famous Clock Tower landmark. 

The hotels are all being rented out to Government contractors, and are housing single men from a variety of countries while they wait for their claims to be processed. 

Up until a few weeks ago, a fifth hotel The Grand which is also in North Parade was being used for migrants. 

Feelings have been running high in the town since a 33-year-old resident of one of the taxpayer-funded hotels was charged with raping a woman in Skegness. 

The woman was allegedly attacked on the night of June 9 in the Tower Gardens park close to Skegness seafront. 

The park is within 500 yards of all the asylum seeker hotels. 

It includes a bandstand and is described on Google as ‘a grassy oasis with flowers and a play area’. 

The Sun reported that man who has been charged had arrived in the UK in a boat just 40 days earlier, although MailOnline was unable to confirm it. 

Lincolnshire Police and the Home Office were unable to comment on the issue due to the live criminal proceedings. 

The man whose nationality has not been revealed was remanded in custody by magistrates on June 12 and is due to enter a plea at Lincoln Crown Court on July 17. 

Adrian Findley, the deputy mayor of Skegness, said: ‘This incident has caused a huge amount of concern locally. People are worried about having so many single young men here. 

‘We rely on tourism as a town, and I think that the use of these hotels for asylum seekers is putting a lot of people off from visiting. 

‘I know of hoteliers who have had cancelled bookings since the news came out about this man being charged. 

‘You get young men aged around 20 to 30, sitting around outside these hotels because they have got nothing else to do. 

‘I realise they probably mean no harm and are just socialising, but it looks unsightly and can be intimidating for people walking past. 

‘I spoke to one of them in a shelter last year and he said that he didn’t want to be here. They can’t work and they feel like they have been just left here. 

‘In my view, Skegness is a traditional seaside town and needs to remain so, rather than being an asylum seeker dumping ground.’ 

Local residents and councillors were given no warning before asylum seekers suddenly moved in to The Sun, Chatsworth and the Leisure Hotel in 2021 Migrants are said to have been bussed in ‘under cover of darkness’ before anyone realised that the hotel owners had signed lucrative contracts with Government agents. 

The art-deco style County Hotel which dates back to the 1930s and The Grand Hotel are thought to have been taken over last September. 

Mr Findley, 53, who belongs to the Skegness Urban District Society (SUDS), a non political group which has a majority on the town council, said that councillors and local residents had been given no warning about the sudden arrival of asylum seekers on both occasions. 

He said: ‘The first thing I knew was when I read about it on Facebook. As a town, we feel this has been forced on us and we have been left with no say. 

‘The problem is that nobody really knows anything about these men who have been sent to live here. 

‘It is nothing to do with discrimination. We just don’t want our hotels to be used for this purpose, particularly when they are on the seafront which all our visitors walk along.’ 

Mr Findley said he collected 2,500 signatures from local people opposing the use of the hotels. 

Matt Warman, the Conservative MP for Boston and Skegness, was repeatedly berated by locals at a public meeting held to discuss the arrival of asylum seekers in the town. 

There have also been two protest marches, one led by the far right Patriotic Alternative group in February and a second in April which was held under the banner, ‘Enough is Enough’. 

Both protests were guarded by a heavy police presence, but were opposed by counter demonstrators showing their support for migrants. 

Julieanne Bunce, 58, who has run the North Parade Hotel between the County and The Sun Hotel for 22 years with her husband, said business had been ‘horrendous’ in recent months. 

She said: ‘I don’t want the asylum seekers here, but they have caused me no bother at all. They are polite and a lot of them say, “Good morning”. 

‘Sometimes they sit out at the front or they go in the shelter over the road and sit on the grass. When they first arrived they came out more, but since all the protests, you hardly see them any more 

‘The biggest issue is the media reporting. I have had customers reading about asylum seekers being in The Sun next door or seeing it on the news and then calling to cancel their bookings. 

‘In some cases, they are people who came last year when they were not bothered about them being there. I tell them that they didn’t make a fuss last year, and nothing has changed. It is just people’s perceptions. People can perceive there is a problem when there isn’t one.’ 

A disabled pensioner who gave his name as Alan, 66, from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said he had not been put off staying in the North Parade hotel, and was on his first of three planned visits this year after staying three times last year. 

He said: ‘I love the food here. The rooms, the staff and the owners are lovely. It is one of the best hotels I have stayed in. Of course, I am aware that there are asylum seekers next door. I am a little bothered because they have all got money and phones. 

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‘I think some of them have even been going out to work. Last time I was here, there were a couple of them going out with rucksacks at the same time every morning. 

‘I just don’t think this country is big enough to accommodate all of them – but I still want to come here. It hasn’t put me off.’ 

Model railway dealer Michael Smith, 62, of Leicester who was sitting near the seafront with wife Julie, 59, said: ‘We are staying for a couple of days in bed and breakfast. 

‘The asylum seekers are not helping the local economy because they are blocking rooms which could otherwise be used by holidaymakers. 

‘I want to respect the fact that people need asylum, but it is how this country is dealing with it. The Government should deal with claims quicker and clear the backlog. If they are not legitimate, they should go immediately. 

‘What concerns us is the length of time that they are being put up in hotels here. I’m sure it puts off some people from visiting. 

‘We were heading back to our place late last night when it was past midnight and all the street lights had been turned off. 

‘We had to walk past a group of asylum seekers who were outside their hotel. The lights were out and we didn’t feel safe. It was probably OK, but we were just uncomfortable. 

‘We also visit Great Yarmouth and they have asylum hotels as well, so we are used to it. I think it is a sad reflection on the country.’ 

Roy Syrett, 79, and wife Carol, 77, said the UK’s asylum policies were ‘out of control’ as they ate fish and chips beside the iconic Jolly Fisherman statue and fountain which has become a symbol of Skegness. 

Retired power worker Roy who was on a day trip with his wife from their home in Lincoln, said: ‘We walk past the hotels and don’t see anything. I don’t know if there are problems after dark. 

‘But the question mark I have is that the majority of those coming over here from different parts of the world are young men. 

‘I am not against them being here, because they are here. It is the way that they came here. If I turned up on a boat in another country, I wouldn’t be allowed in.’ 

Sami Ling-Hall who owns the Mooch coffee bar defended asylum seekers in the town, saying: ‘Personally they are not bothering me. 

‘I am more concerned about the right wing nutters who come here to protest about them. It is unnecessary and bad for the town. 

‘I think it is more the rhetoric around the asylum hotels which is becoming an issue. It seems like it is becoming a witch hunt and it is not their fault. I saw a group of them out on the green playing football the other day and there were no problems. 

‘They don’t ask to be put here and I am sure that Skeg is not really the place they want to be. I just think the Government should be vetting them quicker and getting them sorted. I say give them work visas and allow them to work in the town so they can join in, and get to know people. 

‘I wouldn’t have a problem with taking one of them on if they had the right paperwork. I know of restaurants in the town which have had problems trying to recruit chefs. 

‘It is true that business is quiet for this time of year, but it is wrong to blame asylum seekers. I don’t think people are put off coming because there are still lots of people wandering around, but they are spending less. I am sure that is down more to the cost of living crisis.’ 

Dave Charles, 66, who runs the Seafood Café next door to the Tower Gardens, said: ‘A lot of people argue that the asylum seekers are taking up beds which could be for holidaymakers, but the hotels they are in were well run down or empty before they came here. 

‘As far as I am I aware there has not been an upsurge in crime such as violence or thefts. Apart from the odd group of two or three, you just don’t see the asylum seekers around town. There is no hassle in the local community. 

‘But I don’t think it is fair that we recently had five of our hotels being used for them. I think other towns around here like Horncastle, Mablethorpe and Sutton-on-Sea don’t have any. 

‘There are definitely too many here, and it puts off visitors. I know of a hotelier who has had a lot of cancellations because if it. They are typically middle aged or elderly people who get worried. The problem is that people’s fear of something is often ten times greater than the actual risk. 

‘When we had the colder months, people saw widows at the County Hotel were wide open with all the hot air from the heating escaping outside. It annoyed them to see that when they were struggling with their own bills. 

‘I know we have to help asylum seekers, but the Home Office is wrong to put so many here. It is concerning that they come over here in boats and so many of them are young men. 

‘I have spoken to some of them from places like Afghanistan and Syria, and they have horrific stories, but I believe the majority of those here are economic migrants. 

‘The Government just needs to up its game to get a grip on the issue. I hear that in mainland Europe, it takes eight to 12 weeks to process an asylum claim, but here it can be two years to 36 months.’ 

Conservative-run East Lindsey District Council threatened to take legal action in February by seeking a judicial review if the Home Office tried to house more asylum seekers in hotels in Skegness. 

Councillors claimed that the use of five hotels as hostels had caused ‘substantial harm’ to the town’s reputation as a family resort and had potentially breached planning controls. 

But the demand to halt the procurement of any more hotels ‘in Skegness and wider East Lindsey’ seemingly fell on deaf ears. 

MailOnline was told that one seafront hotel in Skegness with more than 20 rooms had been approached by a contractor in April asking them if they wanted to turn over their premises to migrants. 

The manager of the hotel who did not want to be identified claimed they were offered £62 per night for each asylum seeker they could accommodate. 

But the offer was refused out of principle as it would have meant cancelling the bookings of paying holidaymakers. 

The manager claimed that the hotel had also turned down an offer several months earlier when a higher nightly rate of £89.50 was offered. 

Craig Leyland, the leader of East Lindsey District Council, told MailOnline that the council had ‘entered a period of monitoring’ to establish whether the setting up of asylum hotels had breached planning policies. 

He added: ‘This, like others across the country, is a complex matter and we continue to keep a close eye on national as well as local challenges from authorities with interest as they progress as well as subsequent Planning Case Law. 

‘Enforcement action is not a quick process and there are legal timeframes we have to adhere to, but we are working as quickly as we are able to. 

‘The council has a number of differing roles in respect of the matters relating to asylum seekers and the Government’s approach and we will continue to work positively in our multi-agency format as part of the response to this challenge.’ 

Earlier a council spokesperson said: ‘The council understands the national pressures faced by the Home Office in finding suitable accommodation for those seeking asylum in the UK. 

‘However, any government actions must take into account the social and economic circumstances of those communities being asked to host asylum seekers. The government must also understand that such placements will strain social cohesion.’ 

Café owner Danny Brookes, a former mayor of Skegness who is also a SUDS councillor, said: ‘It’s outrageous that the Government has put so many young males into a family resort. 

‘When asylum seekers first arrived here, we were told that they were only here for the winter. I said that it was fine as long as they were back for tourists in the summer season, but that did not happen and more hotels ended up being used. 

‘You can’t blame the migrants because they are not allowed to do anything, but it is intimidating to see them hanging around and walking about. It makes people wary. 

‘It is been a quiet start to the tourist season and that’s mainly down to the cost of living crisis and people struggling to pay their power bills as well as the bad weather up to now. 

‘But this town depends on tourism and we want to encourage people to come here. Having asylum hotels on the seafront sends out the wrong message. 

‘We have got plenty of hotels, but where do you stop? Is it when all our hotels are full of asylum seekers? If that happened, our town would be dead. 

‘I wrote to the police asking about what extra resources were being used for the asylum hotels and they insisted that there were none. 

‘That is clearly not the case. I know the migrants are sometimes fighting among themselves in the hotels. I have a friend in a flat overlooking one hotel and he says the police are always there. We also had the two protest marches with a massive police presence. 

‘When we had a public meeting after they arrived, people were standing up and making the point that asylum seekers were being put here when nobody really knew anything about them and their backgrounds. 

‘More checks should be carried out on them before they are placed in communities like this. They need to be processed far quicker.’