Council's bid to block hotel housing asylum seekers 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.
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a day ago
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A high court judge has been asked to shut down a hotel housing asylum seekers amid concerns about violence and disorder seen at far-right protests at the site. The local council applied for an urgent injunction against the owners of the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex, that would immediately prevent them housing asylum seekers – having repeatedly called on the Home Office to close it down. A series of protests have occurred since an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault against a 14-year-old girl in July. A second asylum seeker has since been charged with sexual assault. During a hearing before Mr Justice Eyre on Friday, Epping district council's lawyer Philip Coppel KC said the site had ceased to be used as a hotel – its 'sole lawful use'. This, he argued, was a 'clear breach' of planning law. He also cited the concerns of local residents, as well as the safety of the asylum seekers themselves among the justifications for an immediate ban. The hotel's owners argued the planning issue was central – and was insufficient to justify the 'exceptional step' of an immediate interim injunction. It could be dealt with via conventional enforcement action or at a final injunction hearing, they argued. Piers Riley-Smith, representing Somani Hotels, argued asylum seekers had been housed at the Bell for about a year and a half without issue – with problems only arising recently. He told the court: 'In reality, this is an injunction by the council against the [recent] protests and the civil unrest. The council has targeted the wrong institution.' Coppel claimed the placement of asylum seekers put the local community at 'enhanced risk'. He said the alleged sexual offences took place close to the hotel – and that there were schools welcoming about 1,800 children in similar proximity. 'Having this sort of thing go on, with such a concentration of schools, with no measures to stop a repetition is not acceptable. That risk is needs to be removed … parents have the well-founded apprehension that the continued placement of asylum seekers at the Bell hotel represents a risk to those students.' Coppel said the asylum seekers themselves were not safe. 'The occupants, some of whom are vulnerable, are being housed in circumstances that can be described as intimidating. It is the last thing they need.' Riley-Smith said his client believed local residents' concerns were genuine. He said: 'It is clear recent protests have expanded far beyond the local community and have gone into concerns about wider ideological or political issues.' He argued that, if there were an urgent need to remove the asylum seekers and return the site to a conventional hotel because of fears about criminality, it would need to be shown the average asylum seeker has a greater propensity to commit crime than the average hotel guest. There was no such evidence, Riley-Smith told the court. Moreover, he said, were protests to be used as a reason to grant an urgent injunction against housing asylum seekers, this could be repeated at any place being used to welcome them across the country. Mr Justice Eyre reserved judgment until next Tuesday and ordered the hotel's owners not to take in any new asylum seekers before then.
