‘We can't walk safely day or night': How an Essex town reached boiling point over a migrant hotel

Telegraph

6 days ago

Epping Forest. Ancient woodland, historic royal hunting ground, Site of Special Scientific Interest – and now the latest violent flashpoint between police and protesters over the incendiary issue of migrant hotels.
At its centre is The Bell Hotel, where ugly scenes have played out after 38-year-old Ethiopian asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual assault after an incident in which he is alleged to have tried to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
He denied the charge when he appeared at Chelmsford magistrates' court and has been remanded in custody. Meanwhile the focus of local outrage has been the Bell, a 79-room hotel believed to house asylum seekers.
Last Sunday, violence erupted at a protest which saw more than 1,000 people gather outside the hotel, leading to six arrests, after bottles and smoke flares were thrown towards police vehicles.
This was the fourth demonstration in just nine days. Some were peaceful, others less so; eight police sustained injuries in clashes last Thursday, and six people were arrested yesterday.
Whilst many who have taken to the streets seem intent on airing their discontent in an orderly manner – carrying banners bearing slogans such as 'Make Epping Safe Again' and 'I'm not far-Right, I'm worried about my kids' – others appear to have had less honourable intentions.
The weekend's demonstrations were polluted by some far-Right rabble rousers as well as counter-protesters, who weighed in, some wearing balaclavas, under the banner of 'anti-racism'. Nigel Farage, the Reform leader, has blamed 'bad eggs' from the anti-fascist group Antifa and 'far-Right thugs' for the ugly scenes of unrest.
After the drama of police lining up in riot gear, today marks the calm after the storm. But in truth it is just a temporary lull: another demonstration is planned for the weekend coming.
Locals do not appear to endorse angry clashes – everyone I talk to insists that peaceful protest is the only way forward – but a mood of resentment is fomenting amid feelings of frustration and fear.
'I have a 12-year-old daughter who is now on holiday for six weeks – I can't let her out knowing there are predators on the street,' says one 44-year-old construction boss, out walking his beagle at lunchtime. 'But why should she have to be kept indoors while a load of foreigners walk free?
'I'm not a racist, I have friends who are Asian, friends who are black. This is about the fact that successive governments have poured taxpayers' money into providing for people who enter our country illegally and then commit crimes.
Right now nobody seems to be entering, or leaving, the Bell. Security guards in the hotel's foyer have reportedly instructed those believed to be being housed there not to speak to the press.
The area is still reeling from the media glare. A well-to-do area of smart £571,000 terraced houses, detached properties and pricey villas – a four-bed converted barn is currently on the market for £1.25 million – it boasts excellent links to the city by rail and Underground.
No small wonder, then, that it is highly attractive to couples with young families in search of bigger homes and better schools, surrounded by the acres of green space inner-city dwellers can only dream of.
Amid the lovingly-tended gardens and smart cars in gated driveways, The Bell Hotel is a shabby-looking edifice well past its prime, despite the sign reading 'Banqueting Suite & Conference Rooms'. A long, low, modern accommodation block is concealed behind a hedge.
Fencing has been erected in the car park to block off the building and numerous notices read 'This Hotel is closed for (sic) general public'. Its TripAdvisor rating remains online however; a dismal 2.7.
Judging by the reviews, there appear to have been no new guests since August 2021 but someone calling themselves Roving22251070829 has added a comment on July 18 to reflect the high emotions outside the premises.
'Infested. Disgusting. Unsafe,' it reads. 'The owners have sold their souls. Avoid at all costs, especially if you have children. Check recent news.'
What recent news will do for the wider reputation of Epping remains to be seen. But the beauty of the surroundings, where deer and heritage English longhorns roam at will, is incontestable. Incongruously, right across the road stands a corner of forest, edged with silver birch and oak, field elm. and briars heavy with early blackberries.
'We moved out of the inner city for a quieter pace of life, but the riots are a reminder of the terrible problems Britain has at a national level,' says one mother, pushing a buggy, who prefers not to be named.
'Something needs to be done about random hotels full of asylum seekers being dumped in residential areas. It's a crazy idea.'
Crazy maybe, but increasingly a fact of life for communities across the country. Indeed, the cost of housing migrants has tripled to £4m a day as new arrivals continue to make it to Britain's shores at pace. There were 38,000 migrants housed in hotels as of the end of last year, and a further 66,000 asylum seekers in 'dispersed accommodation', predominantly made up of self-catering houses and flats.
It would be easy to lambast locals in places such as Epping as racist. Easy but unfair – and deeply unhelpful.
Truthfully, who amongst us would want to live next to a hotel, housing dozens of displaced individuals, overwhelmingly male, without employment, milling around day after day without purpose?
'Me and my sister went to the first protest on Sunday the 13th, which had a lovely, family atmosphere,' a grandmother in her 70s tells me. 'We were quite open, saying we were there for the children and had no other agenda about race or religion. Our only aim was to protect our children.
'Now it's all kicking off. I won't be attending another, which is a shame, as the more of us who voice our unhappiness, the better.'
Many commentators have described the events at The Bell Hotel as having come out of the blue. But that's not the full story. In April of this year, mother of three Orla Minihane, a Reform candidate for Epping and Theydon Bois, raised the issue of the believed migrant hotel at a council meeting – and was ejected for her troubles.
Her apprehensions have proved to be prescient, but Minihane, who has spearheaded the peaceful protests, said the main focus now was conveying that demonstrators had legitimate concerns, and did not care about the race of the asylum seekers in the hotel.
'I wouldn't care if they were from Iceland, blonde, blue-eyed and Christian. At the end of the day they're strange men who nobody has checked,' she says.
Minihane also unequivocally condemned the violence saying, 'we get branded as far-Right thugs', which takes focus away from the fact that 'the sexual abuse of young girls is not a Right or Left issue – it's a moral issue'.
That sentiment is echoed throughout the town. For Patricia Martin, a 63-year-old former admin assistant, there is a deep disconnect between what happens in Westminster and what is taking place in the country as a whole.
'We don't know who these men are, we know nothing about their history or what terrible situation they may have escaped and the effect on their mental health,' she says.
'And we are expected to just let them into our town to wander freely around? The politicians who let this happen don't live like us, they use private healthcare and don't know or care about the impact this has on us.'
She tells me about a friend of hers, a mother of four who has been homeless for nine years and has spent that time being shunted from one shabby local-authority-funded bed and breakfast to another. 'How come she has nobody on her side while a bunch of illegal immigrants only have to turn up to be given a roof over their heads? This country should start by looking after its own.'
Similar views can be heard in other British towns home to migrant hotels. 'I don't think anybody in London even understands just how close we are to civil disobedience on a vast scale in this country,' Farage said on Monday. 'But do I understand how people in Epping feel? You bet your life I do.'
Martin's cousin, Teresa Mann, 45, gives a shudder at the mention of the recent alleged assaults. As a mother, she is incensed that The Bell Hotel is so close to the local secondary school.
'These men come from other countries, other cultures where they have other attitudes towards women and girls,' she says. 'Siting any sort of accommodation near a school shows how little this problem has been thought through.
'If people come over here they should be put in a place where they can be monitored, their cases looked at quickly and then immediately sent packing if they have no right to be here. Yes they may be fleeing war or whatever but that is no excuse to go about abusing young girls.'
Chris Whitbread, the Conservative leader of Epping Forest District Council, said the local authority had opposed plans for a migrant hotel in the area.
The next demonstration, again led by Minihane, is due to take place next Sunday in front of the hotel. Before then she has challenged the authorities to be more transparent about who is being housed there and what is the plan for them going forward.
'A lack of transparency on the part of the authorities has increased tensions; if you withhold information, you make people suspicious,' she says, adding that the sight of women standing shoulder to shoulder will send a powerful signal to the government.
'Right now we can't walk safely in our community day or night,' says Minihane, who has lived in the area since she was 12 years old. 'Our message is that we live here – it's our right to be safe.'