Council's bid to block hotel housing asylum seekers to be heard on Friday

Independent

19 hours ago

A council's bid to be granted a temporary injunction blocking asylum seekers from being accommodated at a hotel is expected to be heard on Friday.
Epping Forest District Council said on Tuesday that it had filed documents at the High Court requesting an interim injunction stopping migrants from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.
It follows a series of protests in recent weeks outside the hotel, after an asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
PA news agency understands the injunction bid is due to be heard on Friday by Mr Justice Eyre at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, with the case involving the council and Somani Hotels Ltd.
The council said in a statement on Tuesday that it had seen 'unprecedented levels of protest and disruption' in connection with asylum seeker accommodation.
It continued that it had issued the injunction bid because of the 'clear risk of further escalating community tensions and urgency of the need for the present situation to be brought under control'.
Councillors had voted unanimously last month to call on the Home Office to close the hotel, the council added.
Chris Whitbread, leader of the council, said the situation 'cannot go on' but the Government 'is not listening'.
He said: 'The use by the Home Office of the premises for asylum seekers poses a clear risk of further escalating community tensions already at a high, and the risk of irreparable harm to the local community.
'This will only increase with the start of the new school year.
'In our view, placing asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel is a clear breach of planning permission. It is not in use as a hotel, and it doesn't function as a hotel.
'The establishment of a centre to accommodate asylum seekers in this particular location, in close proximity to five schools, a residential care home, and the shops and amenities of the market town of Epping, is not appropriate in planning terms.'
The protests outside the hotel came after a man who was staying at the hotel, Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, was charged with sexual assault.
Kebatu, who is accused of attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl, denies the charges and will stand trial this month.
A second man who resides at the hotel, Syrian national Mohammed Sharwarq, 32, has separately been charged with seven offences.
At a hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, he denied a count of sexual assault after being alleged to have kissed a man on the neck.
He indicated guilty pleas to a further two counts of common assault and four of assault by beating, with all of the offences said to have taken place at the hotel between July 25 and August 12.
He was remanded in custody until a trial at the same court next month.
Six men charged in relation to disorder outside the hotel will also appear in court next week.