ELDERLY neighbours of a Wiltshire hotel which is now being used to house asylum seekers are outraged about the decision and the extra security fencing installed yards from their homes.

The Wiltshire Hotel forms part of a leisure and retirement village near Royal Wootton Bassett.

The Home Office is using the building’s 58 rooms as emergency short-term accommodation for migrants who arrive in the UK via the English Channel.

Neither the village’s management nor the people living in it received any notice of this change of use.

Workmen abruptly arrived in a large truck to construct a six-foot high wooden fence that barricades the only safe pedestrian pathway linking the houses and apartments of the village to The Wiltshire Hotel, its bars and restaurant, two golf courses, gymnasium, and indoor heated pool.

They also installed a new gate, locking out any access for vehicular traffic towards the two golf courses.

Swindon Advertiser: A security fence now blocks the footpath between the Wiltshire Hotel and the nearby retirement villageA security fence now blocks the footpath between the Wiltshire Hotel and the nearby retirement village (Image: Chris Morris)

It meant pensioners and their families could not walk or take wheelchairs along the path to attend the traditional Christmas carol charity concert held in aid of Alzheimer’s Support Wiltshire earlier this month.

However, more than 100 people did manage to attend the event by using the only other alternative route - the narrow pavement-less road that joins the village to The Wiltshire clubhouse, with those walking taking care to avoid the cars and commercial traffic that use the half-mile stretch of tarmac.

A spokesman for property management company Fowler and Spenceley, which oversees health and safety measures in the retirement village, complained in an email to residents that the path “has been inexplicably blocked off by the owners of the Golf Club.

“Neither this firm nor Wiltshire Leisure Village Limited know anything about this action, nor had any warning been given."

Membership of The Wiltshire club and facilities is compulsory for all village residents and costs each of them around £1,500 a year.

One angry pensioner said: “The installation of the fence by the owners of The Wiltshire is an absolute disgrace.

“As village residents, we pay thousands of pounds each year to become members of the club that is compulsory for all house and apartment owners.

“We do not expect to be suddenly barred from using the sole access path to reach the club. There has been no warning about this.

“It’s an arbitrary act that is effectively telling many frail and disabled pensioners to keep out and they’re not welcome. The owners should be ashamed of themselves.

“The genuine concern now is that someone will be seriously injured or even killed being forced to reach the club by walking along the road since there are no pedestrian pavements.”

On the public right of way paths around the two golf courses, villagers have complained about being threatened, harassed, and warned off by security staff.

One 84-year-old said: “We are scared, angry and disappointed by the government’s decision to house so many asylum seekers on our doorstep.

“We have not been informed about what has been going on. There has been no consultation with us, and the negotiations with the hotel’s owners to allow them to come here indefinitely have been clouded in secrecy.”

A 75-year-old woman added: “We came here to enjoy the last years of our lives in peace and quiet. We’ve worked hard, invested our life savings here, and are now seriously worried about the future for ourselves and our families.”

Booking up every room in the luxury hotel is estimated to have cost around £500,000 - and there is no definite end to this contract.