A growing coalition of residents, parents and business-owners in Dereham are preparing for a public confrontation with local and national authorities over the crisis enveloping the NR19 Hotel on Market Place. The facility, currently used for emergency housing by Breckland Council and as accommodation for ex-offenders under a Ministry of Justice (MoJ) contract, has become the centre of an escalating public safety and safeguarding concern.
The NR19 Hotel has been at the centre of a storm of anger in recent months as complaints mount over a surge of anti-social behaviour linked to the hotel.
Many in the market town believe blame lies at the feet of Breckland Council, which is believed to have been using the hotel to house vulnerable groups for more than a decade. Breckland’s leader, Sam Chapman-Allen, has said the council will continue its use of the hotel despite concerns.
The triple threat: safety, funds and safeguarding
Ian Milligan, who has taken the lead in organising the forthcoming community event, described the situation at NR19 as an “escalating crisis”. He says the council is offering “absolutely no support” to those staying in the Grade-II listed building, and that vulnerable groups “are just being dumped there”.
Milligan told East Anglia Bylines that the police had been called out to the venue nearly 250 times since 2020. “Residents argue the continued use of the property for vulnerable and complex housing placements is fundamentally unsustainable and unsafe for both the people housed there and the surrounding neighbourhood.”
Other concerns with residents include safeguarding issues impacting children walking in the area and greater transparency regarding the large sums of taxpayer money being channelled into the property.
“To force disclosure on the cost and contractual standards,” Milligan says, “the organising group has submitted robust Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to both Breckland Council and the MoJ / His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service.
“These requests specifically invoke the Public Interest Test to override any attempts by the authorities or the contractor to withhold cost and contract documents on the grounds of ‘commercial confidentiality’.”
Defending the accommodation
The privately-owned hotel has 11 rooms. None are available for the public to book. Like all local authorities, Breckland Council has a statutory obligation to take reasonable steps to prevent or relieve homelessness for a person eligible for support.
Breckland Council says it has reduced the use of temporary accommodation. such as NR19 Hotel, over the past year and has built its own properties to use as homeless accommodation.
A spokesperson for the council says: “We have an expectation that all residents behave in an appropriate way, but when there are instances when that is not the case, we work closely with police, the landlord and other partners to tackle crime and support community cohesion.”
Reassuring the community, Inspector Simon Jones from Norfolk Police, says, “The community in this area will continue to see high-visibility patrols in Dereham town centre, including evenings and weekends, to provide reassurance and support to the night-time economy.”
Pressure to attend the community meeting
The community action group has sent formal, urgent invitations to key public figures. Their hope is that recipients will attend the upcoming public meeting to explain their current strategy and commit to a clear timeline for action.
Those invited include the local Member of Parliament George Freeman, all relevant Breckland District and Dereham Town Councillors, Chief Constable Paul Sanford and senior police officials. The latter are expected to “address the massive drain on emergency resources”. Milligan says the organising group is urging all residents, local business owners and concerned parents to attend and stand together to demand immediate change. “The meeting is intended to serve as a platform for residents to share direct testimony and to secure concrete commitments from the invited authorities.”
“The focus of the meeting will be to gather a mandate for the group’s demands,” Milligan adds, “including the immediate cessation of placements at the NR19 Hotel and a full independent review of the contracts held by the council and the Ministry of Justice.”
The community meeting will begin at 7pm on Wednesday, December 3 at the Dereham Town Football Club.
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