The council is going back to court because the Home Office has refused to rule out putting up more child refugees in hotels in Brighton and Hove.
The High Court ruled in July that the use of hotels for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children was unlawful except for “very short periods in true emergency situations”.
Today (Monday 11 September) a Labour councillor said that there was a prospect of the government placing more children in a hotel in Hove.
Councillor Lucy Helliwell, who co-chairs the council’s Children, Families and Learning Committee, spoke out at a meeting at Hove Town Hall.
She told the committee: “We recently took the Home Office to court in a bid to stop the government from routinely placing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in hotel.
“The High Court declared it is indeed unlawful. It was a huge victory for this council.
“Despite the judgment, the Home Office refuses to rule out using the city’s hotels again, instead saying they will only use it as a last resort.
“We are therefore being forced to continue live litigation, with the case in the High Court this Friday (15 September).”
Councillor Helliwell said that a report about the issue would be brought to meeting of the committee scheduled to take place in November.
And how much is this costing in legal fees I wonder? I do hope less than putting up kids in proper accommodation
It is absolutely right to legally challenge this.
This is excellent and with a £2m plus legal department at our disposal its right this council upholds its values and launches legal action and challenges.
I just wish the council would do this with the worst of the slum landlords and private sector contractors who they use to house homeless people and they often end up in dangerous and insecure environments, it really does send two messages and I am tired of having to rebut comments like “they can pay millions to house illegals, but they wont help us, people who have lived here our whole lives, payed our taxes and became homeless due to no fault of our own”.
A lot of local people see and hear the council claim money is running out, have to make cuts, yet organisations like baron homes rake in millions and millions in lucrative contracts, they revenge evict any residents who go public with their story.
They give no support & often leaving others in the community to give free support or neighbours having to deal with the effects of poorly managed buildings, these lot (the wealthy provider owners) live in huge gated homes and communities, far away from the hostels they run and mismanage, but the local communities in and around their s**t Holes have to put up with Anti social behaviour, crime and seeing zombies (severely addicted and unwell people) left dwelling on the streets because these buildings are so bad.
I would like to see this £2m legal department tackle all human rights issues and not just the headline grabbing ones!
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
A squabble between the political parties that created the problem, while the the grubby rental ‘market’, unaffordable developments, go on.
What people don’t generally see is the number that get blocked for being things like unaffordable, or having a poor landlord track record. You are right though, that it is right to challenge the council through respectful dialogue when there is a risk of these happening. Over the last few months in particular, there has definitely been a much more responsive attitude, ever since the locals, really.