Asylum hotel to return to normal use, according to local MP
Mims Davies, the MP for East Grinstead and Uckfield, says the Copthorne Hotel will be returned to normal use by the end of the year.
A West Sussex village hotel at the heart of a years-long fight is set to stop housing asylum seekers by the end of December.
The area's MP now wants to sit down with the Copthorne Hotel's owners to bring jobs and community use back to the site.
Mims Davies, Conservative MP for East Grinstead and Uckfield, had presented a petition to parliament last month asking for the hotel to return to normal use.
In a statement, she said: "After years of pressure from the patient local community, who have had this on their doorstep, and the effect of the hotel particularly women and girls feeling unsafe and loss as a valued community asset on them cannot be understated."
"I want next to meet with the hotel owners – to work together to return the hotel back to the community as an employer and for use of the community. Especially with Gatwick expansion both for the build and the future tourism, it will certainly be needed."
"We need safe accommodation for those vulnerable people in peril and looked after humanely but those actively breaking into the UK with no right to be here need to be removed and our borders kept safe."