Community group planning to move following asylum seeker accommodation decision

And now Hearts and Hands, which operates from a nearby unit at New Beacon Group Business Park in Weston Road, plans to move out because of safety concerns for volunteers. The group was set up in October 2020 and provides weekly food parcels for families struggling with the cost of living.

Community Project Manager Lorraine Conkey said: “At Hearts and Hands we have decided to find alternative premises to work from due to the approval of the planning application for Stafford Court. We feel that the safety and wellbeing of our volunteers is paramount as they are often on the premises late night and at weekends when the supermarkets release their surplus food.

“We are not in the main building, we are in a standalone unit and as a voluntary community group set up to help working people in financial crisis. We do not wish to put our volunteers in a position of vulnerability or where they would feel unsafe.

“The team work really hard and usually unsociable hours to bring to the area surplus food tables and free food hampers for those working and retired who are suffering from financial hardship on a short term basis. If you know of any suitable premises with access on an evening and weekend on a ground floor with parking, please let me know.”

The planning appeal decision, published last week, has sparked strong feelings online. A petition set up by “local person” on Change.org, titled “Stop Serco housing asylum seakers (sic) in Stafford”, has netted more than 1,600 signatures in seven days.

Staffordshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Ben Adams, speaking at a police, fire and crime panel meeting on Monday, said there were risks around “right wing groups and others looking to set up protests and use Staffordshire as a testing ground”.

He added: “The worries for the service are around organisations trying to make more of it than is the reality. And social media isn’t helping.

“People have genuine concerns and they need informed genuine information. Genuine information is that criminality is exceptionally low and the risk is exceptionally low – and a lot of what they read, quite frankly, is nonsense.”

Serco, which runs asylum seeker accommodation on behalf of the Home Office, has said it will “engage with the local community and other stakeholders to address the concerns that people have raised”. A spokesman added: “We will work towards ensuring that we establish safe and decent accommodation for these vulnerable people.”

And Stafford Borough Council’s leader Aidan Godfrey has called for organisations to work together to ensure residents and asylum seekers feel safe in the town. He added: “Our town has an excellent track record of welcoming people from all over the world to our area and helping them make the borough their home – many of whom will have fled war or persecution in their own countries.

“The Planning Inspector has decided that the former university accommodation in Stafford is suitable for this asylum centre and it is now important for the council, our partners, and voluntary groups to work with Serco and the Home Office to ensure the concerns that some residents expressed at the inquiry are addressed and allayed. The health and wellbeing of everyone in our community is a priority – including those who live and work here already, and those who will make Stafford their temporary home.”