Counter protesters arrive outside the Novotel
A protest and counter-protest are scheduled to take place in front of a hotel housing asylum seekers. The Novotel Nottingham-Derby, on Bostocks Lane in Long Eaton, was taken over by the Home Office last October.
Some staff members lost their jobs when the hotel was used as accommodation for asylum seekers. An anti-immigration demonstration, scheduled for around 12pm on Saturday (February 25), will be met by a counter-protest, organized by Open Nottingham, which is expected to take place an hour earlier.
A flyer posted on Twitter by Yorkshire Rose, also known as Amanda Smith, reminds participants that the protest scheduled for 12:00 pm will be peaceful. The flyer posted by the Yorkshire Rose reads: “Protect your children. Protect our women. Protect our interests. Enough is enough.”
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Members of Open Nottingham, a group that says it was formed to make Nottingham a safer and more democratic place, will attend in support of asylum seekers.
In a tweet earlier this week, the group said: “We are hearing that a far-right anti-immigrant demonstration will be announced in Nottingham for Saturday. A counter-demonstration is also being planned.” However, the participants say that the 12:00 demonstration has been organized by local residents who are “not associated with any right-wing group.”
The head of the planned demonstrations, Derbyshire Police, said they were in contact with the organisers. Meanwhile, on the Lincolnshire border, the people of Skegness will take to the streets to protest the accommodation of asylum seekers in the seaside town’s hotels. The ‘Ya basta’ rally will begin between late morning and noon, with participants expected to hold banners and chant.
11:25 a.m.jack thurlow