HOTELS and police are to hold regular meetings to tackle issues like child sexual exploitation under a new scheme.

It is hoped the North Oxfordshire Hotel Watch scheme – with meetings every three months – will be rolled out across the county.

It comes after Oxford budget hotel Nanford Guest House, in Iffley Road, was used by a gang who abused girls as young as 11.

Thames Valley Police’s Operation Bullfinch led to jail sentences totalling 95 years for grooming, drugging and abusing vulnerable girls in May 2013.

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Among the 25 hotels in Cherwell district that have signed up to Hotel Watch is Banbury’s Avonlea Guest House.

Manager Debbie Whitford said: “It’s really about having a point of contact with the police. It means we can all keep an eye on things and clamp down on any concerns we have.

“It will be good to be open with the police and with each other about what is going on, the sort of people coming in and what to look out for.”

She added: “We had a seminar earlier in the year with the police about child sexual exploitation after Operation Bullfinch.

“I think after Bullfinch most of my colleagues would be very, very wary of exploitation and would pick up on it very quickly.”

She added: “What we have been doing up to now is just myself and six other B&Bs getting together over the past few years for lunch every few weeks.

“If we’ve had trouble guests who had made a real mess of a room or left without paying then we can say, ‘Watch out for this person, they are not welcome’, so other people don’t have the same problems.”

Inspector Katrina Hibbert, from Banbury police station, said: “My hope is that Hotel Watch will help us to build closer relationships with the hotel industry, which will help to identify offences and, most importantly, protect vulnerable people.”

Cherwell and West Oxfordshire area commander Superintendent Kath Lowe added: “Hotel Watch is a great idea. Not only will it allow us to work more closely with hoteliers, but it could also disrupt offending and prevent child sexual exploitation in our area.

“If Hotel Watch works well in Cherwell I would like to see it rolled out to West Oxfordshire and potentially beyond.”

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