Owners of Datchet's Manor Hotel urged to revive venue or sell up
The owners of The Manor Hotel in Datchet faced calls to restore the venue to its former glory or sell up during a fiery public meeting.
Over the past five years, the hotel has been closed to the public and used instead to house homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic and as asylum seeker accommodation.
An arrangement with the Home Office to use the facility as an asylum seeker hotel came to an end last month.
Villagers called on the hotel’s directors, Mandip and Sukhdip Gill, who run M G Hotels Limited, to revive the hotel and return it to being a hub at the heart of the village during an extraordinary meeting of Datchet Parish Council on Monday.
Datchet resident Jackie Winter said: “The impetus is on the Gill brothers to get us back on track. They ran the hotel into the ground pre-pandemic. They then took money (Government contracts), that was great, and we got the reasons for it.
“It is on them to win us back. It is not down to the Datchet Parish Council, it is not down to RBWM.”
She added: “The owners of the hotel are the only people who can affect what is going to happen to that hotel. They will only get us back on board by being honest, being open and actually involving us so we trust them to run the hotel and put us back on the map.
“If they don’t want to run a hotel, sell it. There is a need for it, there is a need for tourism and the village needs footfall. We will support them but they have to engage with us, not the other way round.”
The meeting heard how the hotel had been used as temporary accommodation for homeless people during the pandemic as part of an agreement with Windsor and Maidenhead council.
The hotel cancelled this arrangement in 2022 and subsequently entered a partnership with the Home Office to use the venue as a hotel for people awaiting asylum decisions.
Members of the public spoke out at the meeting about this use of the venue – particularly due to its proximity to nearby schools.
One objector, who did not wish to be named, said: “It’s all very well talking about the future but we need to acknowledge the mistakes that have been made and we need to know what we can do to prevent this happening again.
“I for one do not want unvetted people living across from the school. We don’t know who they are, we don’t know where they’ve come from, and we don’t know their background.”
A statement was read out at the meeting from Windsor MP Jack Rankin, who said he had held a meeting with the hotel’s owners since it ceased operating as an asylum seeker hotel.
Mr Rankin said: “I made the point that the Datchet Manor Hotel should once again be a hotel at the heart of village life to welcome tourists and business travellers.”
He added: “I want to see The Manor Hotel returned to a quality, functioning hotel like it used to be.”
Sunil Kalia, who has helped launch a new website for the Manor Hotel, told the meeting the owners are ‘on board’ with trying to revive the venue.
“The owners are doing what they can to get the hotel back onto a commercial footing,” he said.
The Manor Hotel’s owners did not attend Monday night’s meeting but are expected to discuss the venue’s future plans with members of Datchet Parish Council in a private meeting on Friday.
The Manor Hotel has been approached for comment.
