Doubts have been cast over whether Keswick’s £6 million Premier Inn can find enough local staff to open its doors.
Hotel bosses are planning a 14-week recruitment drive ahead of a November opening, but Keswick Town Council is warning it will be lucky to find staff who live in the town.
With established local employers already struggling for people and high season looming, national pub chains in Keswick, such as Marstons and Wetherspoon, are in the same boat, councillors say.
Premier Inn operator Whitbread said it was on track to open before Christmas, but said it had not yet committed to an opening month, which was not unusual with construction work still ongoing.
A spokesman said it had not started recruiting for the hotel, either from Keswick or elsewhere, and that staff at other Premier Inns might want to join its team. But councillors have questioned whether recruiting out-of-town staff reneges on a pledge the company made to employ local people, and whether it represents a breach of its planning conditions.
Cllr Adam Paxon, of Keswick Town Council, suggested it was a grey area.
He said: “Premier Inn for Keswick has been involved with jobs fairs in Cockermouth and Workington as they are unable to recruit people living in this town.”
Major brands are getting a foothold in Keswick by promising local jobs during controversial developments which national park planners had to be wary of if they could not be delivered, he said.
“When businesses want to come to Keswick, they make an argument about the employment they are going to give us,” said Cllr Paxon. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that Keswick is going to have a net increase in employment.
“They encourage us to think that we are going to get a net increase in employment when I don’t think that’s the case.
“I feel that this (the Premier Inn) development is an example of where the wool has been pulled over our eyes. People may be being employed but we do need to question what local means.”
Whitbread is tied to a condition that before the 71-bed premises on Keswick’s High Hill can open to guests, the company must recruit staff from the local area of Keswick.
The rule was set down when permission was granted in November 2020 despite 3,300-signatures against the hotel, and was to ensure so far as reasonably possible that local people are recruited.
The LDNPA confirmed that recruitment from Workington would not represent a breach. An LDNPA spokesman said: “Condition 13 requires that a Local Employment Scheme be submitted to include details of the measures that will be implemented to recruit staff to the hotel from the local area of Keswick.
“It requires employment to take place in accordance with that scheme so far as possible. But it does not preclude employment of staff from elsewhere. It is unlikely that Workington would be considered as the local area of Keswick but the condition does not prevent employment from Workington in any case. Condition 13 does not prevent employment from elsewhere. It seeks, so far as possible, to ensure employment is in the local area. But does not restrict it, if this is not possible.
But town councillors say a staff search which extends to Workington – 21 miles away or a 42-mile round trip for employees – seriously stretches the definition of workers local to Keswick.
And if Workington is a baseline, it could also mean communities similarly as far away such as Langwathby – east of Penrith; Windermere, Wigton and Dalston, could also make a claim to being local to Keswick too.
Cllr Duncan Miller, a member of Keswick Town Council, said the company had pledged to recruit from the Keswick local area”but also questioned the definition of “local area”.
Cllr Tony Lywood said companies promising jobs in Keswick was like “giving a barrel of beer to a drunken man”.
“We don’t need any extra employment, we haven’t got enough people to fill the vacancies we’ve already got – it’s a pile of nonsense,” said Cllr Lywood.
Planning permission was granted in very different economic times – before the cost-of-living crunch, the town’s staffing shortage peaked and fuel prices going off-the-scale and EU workers staying away.
The hotel needs around 40 workers for a rota of housekeepers, reception, kitchen staff and overnight employees.
But Whitbread is short of people UK-wide and are advertising more than 1,700 vacancies at Premier Inns including those in London, Glasgow and Dublin.
