A MEDICAL trial which could help find a cure for the common cold is being conducted in a Basildon hotel.

The Holiday Inn, on the Festival Leisure Park, is hosting the medical study, but some hotel staff are concerned.

The Echo understands as many as 30 people may be taking part in the two-week study by a company called Retroscreen Virology. The firm is known to test treatments for respiratory virus infections.

The Echo visited the hotel yesterday, after getting reports from concerned workers.

We went in the lift to the top floor, where the rooms have been booked for the tests.

We were confronted by a large white partition with a sign pinned to it reading: “No entry. Please excuse our appearance while works are completed”.

A friend of one hotel worker told us: “It’s not right or fair. Apart from everything else, this kind of thing is meant to be done at a hospital, not a hotel with carpets and curtains. Staff are up in arms and very concerned.”

Andrew Smith, hotel spokesman, insisted those taking part were confined to the sealed-off area. He said Retroscreen had booked one floor for a fortnight for “a safe, controlled medical study into a type of common cold.”

He added: “The study is taking place in a sectioned-off area and is supervised by fully-qualified medical staff. It presents no threat.”

He added the test had been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. The hotel had also carried out a risk assessment.

Retroscreen recruits for volunteers via a website, offering as much as £3,000 to human guinea pigs. As well as the common cold, it researches viruses including HIV, herpes, hepatitis C and severe acute respiratory syndrome, Simone Alves, spokesman for Retroscreen, said he was not prepared to comment on the use of the hotel, or reveal the nature of the tests, citing patient confidentiality.