Council tight-lipped on enforcement action against Newtownabbey migrant hotel

The council has been pressed to reveal details of the alleged breach that Chimney Corner Hotel stands accused of committing, but will not say.

The News Letter rang the hotel to ask if it wished to comment.

A woman answered who would not give her name, but said she was the receptionist.

"No,” she said.

The hotel, on the north-western outskirts of Newtownabbey, has been used to house migrants for years.

It has sometimes been the focus of anti-immigration protests.

Antrim and Newtownabbey council said that last Friday it had “served an enforcement notice under section 138 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 on Loughview Leisure Group Ltd, the occupiers of the Chimney Corner Hotel, and various other landowners and persons whom, in the opinion of the council, have an estate in the land, in respect of breaches of planning control under section 131 (1) (a) of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011”.

The latter section of legislation concerns “carrying out development without the planning permission required”, though the council would not elaborate on how this applied in the Chimney Corner case.

It added: “This notice will take effect on 02 September 2026, unless an appeal is made against it beforehand to the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC).

"As this enforcement case remains ongoing, the council will refrain from further comment at this time, as that may prejudice any subsequent planning appeal or the outcome of any enforcement proceedings.”

The BBC had reported last August that the council had launched a planning investigation into the hotel.

That had followed a high-profile case taken by Epping Forest District Council in England against a migrant hotel in its area.

In that case it was claimed that a change of use had been required for the hotel to house asylum seekers, as opposed to regular hotel guests, but that one had not been obtained.