Demonstrations outside a top Hotel where staff have reportedly been sacked ahead of the arrival of asylum seekers have continued for another night.
Locals living near to the four-star Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli, South Wales, are camping out as they continue their campaign to stop the venue being turned into a refugee centre.
Over the weekend there were clashes between police and protesters after officers tried remove a car that was being used as a blockade to stop contractors accessing the site.
Angry demonstrators smeared security vans with animal excrement with locals describing it as a ‘siege’ with 50 protesters camped outside and being brought food and drink by supporters.
Meanwhile a counter demonstration by pro-refugee activists was seen close by on Monday as the tense situation shows no signs of resolving heading into midweek.
Police officers cuffing a woman as part of the protests on Sunday – she insisted she hadn’t ‘done anything’
Furious protesters shouted ‘shame on you’ as officers held a woman on Sunday
Footage shared online shows how the protest outside the hotel in Wales escalated on Sunday
Dramatic footage taken on Sunday had shown tensions mounting as protesters clashed with police as they demonstrated against plans to convert the hotel into an asylum seeker facility.
Horse manure was used to daub door handles of vans from a security company brought in by the Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd, one of Britain’s largest providers of housing to the Home Office.
One protester said: ‘The hotel is part of the history and fabric of the town – people are angry that this has been foisted upon us.
‘I’m not a racist, I feel some sympathy with asylum seekers but the best hotel for miles around is not the place for them.
‘It’s a bit of siege situation right now – we are organised and will see it out.’
The hotels two main entrances are blocked off by large rocks and protesters are stopping people coming and going.
A new entrance, created by cutting down hedgerow, has become the focus of the stand-off between protesters and Clearsprings.
Four lorry loads of Home Office-approved beds are waiting to be delivered to the landmark hotel which was due to start receiving 241 asylum seekers on July 3.
But protesters are refusing to allow them through the barricades which are being marshalled by police.
One hotel worker was allowed to leave at the weekend after a medical emergency involving one of his family.
In chaotic video which has emerged of the protest in Wales yesterday, a man was heard shouting at other demonstrators: ‘Sit on the floor, they need four officers to move you if you sit on the floor.’
Protesters sit and stand outside the Stradey Park Hotel on Monday as they continue demonstrations against plans to turn it into a migrant centre
A police officer speaks to demonstrators outside the hotel on Monday as protests continue for another day
Police guard a hole in a fence at the hotel on Monday to stop protesters from getting onto the hotel site
Supporters of the protesters hand out food and drinks to keep them going on Monday night
A police officer stands guard as protesters continue to gather into Monday night outside the hotel
Locals voice their concern to police officers outside the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli, Wales
Police officers lined up outside the Stradey Park Hotel in Llanelli, Wales
‘Officers remain at the scene to facilitate peaceful protest, where they are engaging with all parties and offering reassurance to the community’
Riled up crowd members were heard chanting’ de-escalation’ and ‘shame on you, officer’ as they cuffed one woman.
The man filming shouts ‘so the local police are now standing against the local people’.
Others shout ‘oh my God’ and ‘get off her’ as a woman appears to be arrested. Furious protesters yelled at the officers, branding them ‘scum’ before another man is heard shouting: ‘Who’s assaulting who now, b*****ds…’
A woman who is being held by police insists ‘I’m not doing anything, do you think this is right?’
A man claims: ‘She stood in the road and that was it folks.’
Local police were yesterday called to the scene by security staff at around 8.40am and stayed throughout the day as more protesters gathered.
The force later arrested two people for allegedly preventing the movement of a vehicle that was blocking the hotel’s entrance before releasing both individuals on bail.
Carmarthenshire County Council lost its bid for a High Court injunction to temporarily block plans to use the 77-bedroom Stradey Park to accommodate asylum seekers.
The council claimed it would mean a ‘material change of use from hotel to hostel’ and went against planning regulations.
It said handing it over to asylum seekers would result in job losses, impact on tourism and cut the number of hotel beds in the area by 25 per cent.
The blockade is aiming to prevent the hotel from being converted into a facility for housing asylum seekers
Protestors have started blockading the Stradey park Hotel in Llanelli after it fired 95 staff in plans to house up to 241 asylum seekers
Local campaigners have surrounded the hotel in opposition to the Home Office plans
Campaigners say more than 100 jobs are in jeopardy in what is already an employment blackspot.
Lawyers acting for hotel owner Gryphon Leisure Limited said it was helping with a ‘clear, pressing and urgent need’ for asylum seeker initial accommodation and there was no breach of planning rules.
The court was told that Gryphon director Robert Horwood had warned that, without the ‘injection of funds’ from a contract with Clearsprings there was ‘a serious risk that the use as a hotel would be lost in any event’.
Carmarthenshire County Council on Friday lost its High Court bid to block the plans after claiming the conversion would ’cause harm’ to Llannelli’s economy.
Judge Gavin Mansfield KC was due to give his reasons for dismissing the council’s application for an injunction at the High Court today.
The historic hotel in the village of Furnace, close to the Llanelli rugby club’s former Stradey Park stadium has hosted the New Zealand All Blacks and the South African Springboks in its rich history.
It has ‘stunning views’ of Carmarthen Bay and the Gower peninsula and
