High Peak Green party says Buxton could accommodate 100 refugees in former halls of residence

Earlier in the month the university withdrew the proposal to convert the former halls of residence into 274 rooms to be used by asylum seekers, just hours before the meeting to discuss the plans was due to take place.

Since then they have said they ‘still intend to re-purpose this building to accommodate non-students and we will revise and resubmit an application as soon as possible’.

Now the High Peak Green party has said the country needs to be doing more.

Party spokesperson Jane Reynolds said: “As hurricanes, storms, droughts and wildfires wreak havoc around the world, there will be ever more people needing to flee their homelands and seek safety somewhere else.

“The Green Party believes that Britain should play a much greater role in providing asylum for refugees and should create safe routes for them to get here.

“In Buxton there has been much consternation about the possibility of asylum seekers coming to live in the town,

“It is true that we lack the infrastructure needed to provide the level of homes, education and healthcare which local people deserve.

“But this is entirely down to the last 13 years of Conservative rule, which have stripped local authorities of the funds they need to adequately serve their communities.”

The University of Derby’s High Peak Halls have been empty since 2019 with the university making the decision to axe all degrees housed at the Buxton campus.

Jane said: “Almost 300 people would be too many, even by the Government’s own guidelines, but we believe that up to 100 people could be accommodated in Buxton and that, with adequate Government funding, the local authority supported by volunteers, could enable these asylum seekers to attend college, improve their English and begin to recover from the traumas so many of them have experienced.”No plans have been submitted as of yet.