Emergency accommodation plan for hotels criticised

Alleged crime and anti-social behaviour at two hotels being used as emergency accommodation has been highlighted by local residents at a public meeting.

Scarborough town councillors heard claims that some people living in one of the hotels, The Lodge on Valley Road, had been seen openly buying drugs and soliciting for prostitution in the area.

Homemore Ltd, which runs The Lodge and The Redcliffe Hotel, is applying for the two hotels to be formalised as emergency accommodation.

Responding, Andrew Waggitt, from Homemore, told the meeting: "We are not driving peoples' choices or addiction, but we are providing a platform for people to engage in services. Many people put their lives back together."

Homemore Ltd delivers emergency temporary accommodation for adults, in partnership with local authorities and statutory services, before they move to more permanent housing.

Speaking during Thursday's meeting at Scarborough Town Hall, one local resident, Rachel, said there had been "an extreme difference" in quality of life since The Lodge opened.

She told the meeting: "This is affecting our lives on a daily basis. We can no longer sit outside.

"It's loud, it's vicious and it's upsetting. When it's warm, we can't have our windows open because of the noise and the smell of cannabis.

"I don't feel safe in my home. This has an extreme effect on our lives on a daily basis. No one is helping and no one has a grip of it."

Brian Witty, who explained that he lived next door to The Lodge, said noise and disturbance from the residents meant he was no longer able to sit in his garden or have his grandchildren round to visit.

"There is no proper management in place. There is fighting," he told councillors.

"Two weeks ago, someone was knifed across his forehead. It is constant day and night. They are making a mess of my life and we are going through hell."

Another resident, speaking from the public gallery, said: "My wife won't go the shop on her own.

"Our elderly neighbours won't go out. We see drug dealing on the street openly and girls soliciting."

Councillor Tom Seston, who represents Scarborough's Eastfield division and leads North Yorkshire Council's Reform UK group, said he had used the Freedom of Information Act to get figures for the number of police visits to Valley Road, where The Lodge is situated.

He said that in 2023, there were 162 police visits, while in 2024, there were 211, then in 2025, after he said The Lodge opened, there were 695.

"That's an increase of 229% in a year," Seston said.

Robert Everall, another Reform UK town councillor, called for both sites to be shut down.

However, Labour's Chris Clarke, told the meeting: "If we reject this application, where do these vulnerable adults go?

"Without The Redcliffe and The Lodge, we will be forced to place people in ad hoc bed and breakfast accommodation at astronomical cost to the taxpayer."

Meanwhile, speaking from the public gallery, a man who said he lived near The Redcliffe, said: "I don't think closing these places down is the answer, they need to be managed better.

"My teenage daughter has never suffered any intimidation. Putting people onto the streets is not the answer."

Responding to the police statistics, Waggitt said officers visited the sites for various reasons, including checking the welfare of people living at The Lodge.

He said: "There is no dedicated framework for emergency accommodation, and we are working incredibly hard.

"Since we started six years ago, we have housed 4,000 people in homelessness or on the margins. This is very challenging work we undertake.

"There is a predisposition to attribute everyone who looks homeless or a certain way to our properties, and you only have to walk through the town centre to see the scale of deprivation in this town. It is a complicated issue.

"The alternative to not approving the application is that homeless people will be sprinkled across the town in hotels and B&Bs without the support we have in place."

Three town councillors voted against supporting The Lodge's application, with one abstention, while three councillors voted against The Redcliffe's application, with one in favour.

A final decision on the proposals will be made by North Yorkshire Council at a date yet to be fixed.

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