Epping council goes to High Court to remove migrants from hotel

Telegraph

3 days ago

Epping Forest district council has applied to the High Court to stop asylum seekers being housed at a hotel that has been at the centre of protests.
The local authority has asked for an interim injunction to prohibit the use of the Bell Hotel as asylum seeker accommodation for a fortnight.
The leader of the council said it had taken the action because ' the current situation cannot go on', adding that the Home Office 'continues not to listen'.
Protests have been taking place outside the hotel since last month, after an Ethiopian asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a schoolgirl days after arriving in Britain.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, denied the charge when he appeared at Chelmsford magistrates' court, and has been remanded in custody.
In a statement on Tuesday, Cllr Chris Whitbread said: 'The current situation cannot go on. If the Bell Hotel was a nightclub, we could have closed it down long ago.
'So far as the council is aware, there is no criminal record checking of individuals who might only have been in the country a matter of days before being housed at the hotel.
'There are five schools and a residential care home within the vicinity of the hotel.
'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. We are frustrated that the Home Office continues not to listen.'
The Conservative-led council is claiming that placing asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel is a 'clear breach of planning permission' because it is not being used as a hotel.
Cllr Whitbread said he hoped that, should an interim injunction be granted, it would be a 'catalyst to the prohibition of the use of the Bell Hotel' to house migrants.
At the end of last month, Essex Police said 14 people had been charged in connection with protests outside the hotel, and there had been 23 arrests.
Protesters opposing the use of the hotel to house migrants have also been faced by counter-protests, at times leading to hundreds of demonstrators in the area.
Since the demonstrations began in Epping, there have been other migrant protests cropping up in other parts of the country, including at Heathrow and the financial area of Canary Wharf.
Cllr Holly Whitbread, responsible for Epping Forest district council's finances, told PA: 'In terms of the community impact and the pressure on local infrastructure, it's just completely unsustainable, particularly also in light of the amount of police resource which has been required around some of the protests which I know have been largely peaceful.'
'In theory, the Home Office are supposed to foot the bill for those within the hotel, but I think the reality is often different'.
Meanwhile, Ricard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, claimed migrants were 'leering and jeering' at mothers taking their children to school.
He told Times Radio: 'We are seeing an increase in numbers of sexual assaults, leering and jeering, coincidentally around asylum seeker hotels. When I campaign up and down the country, I hear this from concerned residents close to these hotels time and time again. Around primary schools, as mums take their youngsters to school.'
Other local authorities have previously sought injunctions against the use of hotels as asylum accommodation. Councils including Ipswich borough council, East Riding of Yorkshire council, Fenland district council and Stoke-on-Trent city council had interim injunctions granted but not continued.
In January 2023, the High Court decided to continue an injunction from the previous in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where a seafront hotel had been lined up to house asylum seekers.
The court noted that the area's local plan had a policy to protect the seafront, and that hostels were not permitted there.
Matt Vickers, the shadow policing minister, said Epping Forest district council 'is absolutely right to take a stand'.
He added: 'Communities like Epping should not be forced to carry the burden of Labour's broken asylum policy. Local residents have every right to feel safe in their own streets and every right to object to this accommodation in their community.
'This is the direct result of Labour's decision to throw open Britain's borders and tear up the deterrents the Conservatives put in place. The Conservatives will remove all illegal arrivals immediately and put a proper deterrent in place so that towns like Epping are never put in this position again.'
A Home Office spokesman said: 'It would be inappropriate to comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.'