Datchet parish councillors push for 'restricted usage' of Manor Hotel

Datchet parish councillors have pushed the Royal Borough to ensure a hotel in the village is used for tourists and the local community.

But the local authority has insisted the Manor Hotel, in the Green, is a private business and it ‘does not have any influence’ over contractual arrangements that have previously seen it used for asylum seeker accommodation.

The arrangement with the Home Office to use the hotel for this purpose came to an end in May this year.

The hotel has also been used as temporary accommodation for homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic, in an agreement with the Royal Borough.

In June this year, an extraordinary meeting of Datchet Parish Council heard villagers calling on the hotel’s directors, Mandip and Sukhdip Gill, who run M G Hotels Limited, to restore the hotel to its former glory – or sell up.

Following the villagers’ calls, Datchet Parish Council (DCP) sent a letter to the Royal Borough on July 22.

Parish councillors asked the borough to support a request for ‘restricted usage of The Manor Hotel’.

The letter further asked RBWM to ‘refrain from entering into or considering any future contracts that involve non-hotel use of Manor Hotel’,

Datchet Parish Council said that it is important to keep hotel accommodation in Datchet as part of a ‘broader effort to support local tourism and economic sustainability in the village’.

Borough councillors were also asked to engage with the parish council and local stakeholders before any proposals are brought forward regarding significant assets in Datchet.

A reply from the Royal Borough came through on August 4.

During a Datchet Parish Council meeting on Monday, the response from the Royal Borough was read out.

It said: “The previous arrangement in which it served as a holding facility for asylum seekers was established through a direct contract between hotel owners and contractors associated with the Home Office.

“Unfortunately, the Royal Borough does not have any influence over these contractual agreements and cannot prevent similar arrangements from occurring in the future.”

Councillor David Buckley, the chair of the parish council and also a Reform borough councillor, was not satisfied with the local authority’s response.

He said: “There is a difference in what is being asked and what is being answered.

“That really defers away from the questions we asked [the borough council]. We are just not getting satisfactory answers.”

Cllr Buckley added that requests made by the parish council to meet with the hotel’s owners have been ignored.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting, ward councillor Ewan Larcombe (NFPP) said: “The fact is that the owners own the hotel, they are working legally.

“We as the parish council have done our bit. We’ve had our meeting; we have allowed people to say their piece.”

The owners of the Manor Hotel have been approached for comment.