Latest news with #EssexPolice
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Essex politicians call for meeting with Home Secretary over asylum-seeker hotel
Five local political leaders have urged the Home Secretary to make a hotel housing asylum seekers in Essex a 'priority for urgent closure', citing community tensions that have put a strain on policing. The signatories have requested a meeting with Yvette Cooper to discuss the continued use of The Bell Hotel in Epping to house migrants. Essex Police said 14 people have been charged in connection with protests at the site and there have been 23 arrests. Multiple demonstrations have been held outside The Bell Hotel since July 13 after an asylum-seeker was charged with allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, who was charged with sexual assault, denies the charges. He is due to stand trial in August. Concerns about the use of The Bell Hotel to house asylum-seekers have been expressed in an open letter sent to the Home Secretary on Wednesday. The signatories are: Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex; Dr Neil Hudson, MP for Epping Forest; Alex Burghart, MP for Brentwood and Ongar; Cllr Christopher Whitbread, Leader of Epping Forest District Council and Cllr Kevin Bentley, Leader of Essex County Council. In the letter, the politicians argue that housing migrants at the site is 'proving to be entirely unsuitable and… placing an unsustainable strain on police resources'. They added that this is 'creating significant community tension, and leading to public disorder that is unacceptable to our residents and deeply concerning for the safety of all involved'. The letter continued that 'large-scale protests and counter-protests' on several days saw 'more than 2,000 people attending across all dates'. 'During these events, eight Essex Police officers have been injured — one requiring hospitalisation after being struck in the face with a bottle,' the letter said. 'Officers from neighbouring forces have been brought in to support our local resources. 'This simply cannot continue. 'While we respect the public's right to peaceful protest, the level of violence now seen on Epping's streets is alarming.' They say that the police deployments at the hotel are 'putting our ability to maintain public safety at risk'. 'We support the Home Office's wider objective of reducing reliance on hotels and are keen to work with you,' the letter said. 'However, we urge you to accelerate this process and make The Bell Hotel in Epping a priority for urgent closure. 'It is vital that this location be reconsidered considering the operational realities on the ground. 'We urge that The Bell Hotel be made a priority for urgent decommissioning.'
Telegraph
a day ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
They tried to break Lucy Connolly, but the decent people of Britain will never desert her
Yesterday, I spoke to Orla Minihane, mother of three teenagers and a Reform UK council candidate, who gave a magnificent, impromptu speech in Epping saying that the protesters were not 'far-Right', as the media and the authorities like to allege. It was a peaceful demonstration by normal British people who had had enough and were going to protect their kids come what may. Addressing the issue at a press conference in London, Nigel Farage took the bold step of saying that immigration was to blame for the sharp rise in rapes and sexual assaults in the UK. Orla, who has been trolled online as a 'Nazi Barbie' and a 'moronic fascist', was disgusted with Essex Police for escorting counter-protesters from Stand Up to Racism (far-Left agitators with placards apparently paid for by the Socialist Workers Party, as the media and authorities don't like to allege) to clash with concerned locals like her. 'If you were in Dover in these numbers, stopping hundreds breaking into our country every day, we wouldn't have this problem,' Orla told officers. One Epping single mother reported an incident involving a migrant to the police and an officer replied: 'Be careful what you say, you know what happened to Lucy Connolly.' 'Outrageous,' says my senior source in Essex Police, 'but a true reflection of the woke culture the chief constable (Ben-Julian Harrington) has spent so much time and money on. Officers aren't taught about free speech in relation to cases like Lucy Connolly's – all they know is hurt feelings.' The tide is turning fast on that deluded, self-loathing culture, in no small part due to the scandal of Lucy Connolly. Just consider how things have changed: 'If that makes me racist so be it' Lucy's defiant assertion of her right to criticise the UK's immigration policy is now echoed up and down the land, from pubs to dinner parties. Starmer's Stasi could silence people with the stigma of being racist or 'far-Right' a year ago, but the people have wised up to their tricks. The British will no longer be demonised for defending their women, their children and their culture against illegal migrants. Call us what you like, we are right and they are wrong. Two-tier Keir The UK has become a free-speech pariah with Lucy jailed for two-and-a-half years for a thought crime no one has ever linked to actual violence while a (now former) Labour MP Mike Amesbury, who admitted punching a constituent repeatedly, had his laughable 10-week prison sentence suspended within a few short days. Meanwhile, suspended Labour councillor Ricky Jones, captured on video apparently calling for far-Right protesters to have their throats 'cut', only a few days after Lucy's tweet, has been out on bail; his case will not even be heard until later this month. What the hell? Little wonder the Connolly case has made astounded headlines around the world. Last week, Le Monde quoted me on the scandal, saying it had 'brought shame on the UK'. See also the Prime Minister's embarrassment as President Trump schooled him on the way to deal with illegal migrants. An ashen Starmer looks as itchily uncomfortable as a seven-year-old boy with worms. 'You better get your act together or you're not going to have Europe anymore,' Trump warned on his arrival. 'But you're allowing it to happen to your countries and you got to stop this horrible invasion that's happening to Europe. Immigration is killing Europe.' And so say all of Epping! Misinformation While ordinary protesters are accused of acting on and spreading 'misinformation', the state is already using (and abusing) the new Online Safety Act to censor public discontent with immigration while denying that posts have wrongly been taken down from X. In fact, since the new rules came into force last week, the platform has blocked users from viewing a clip of MP Katie Lam speaking about grooming gangs in the House of Commons until X has verified their age. So the state is not prepared to protect children against rape, but instead 'protects' adults from hearing about it. At the weekend, The Telegraph revealed that an elite police unit will monitor social media for signs of 'anti-migrant sentiment'. That's the same state which used a superinjunction to hide from the British people the fact that it had smuggled in thousands of Afghans at a total cost believed to be around £7bn to the taxpayer. And some of those Afghans were Taliban who had fought against British troops, and are now occupying Army quarters next to squaddies' wives and kids. Surely, the most outrageous piece of 'misinformation' in our history. But apparently the real problem is with mothers and fathers who don't want their daughters hissed at and molested on the way to school. 'Take the treacherous government and politicians with them' Lucy's contempt for politics is nigh on universal now. Successive governments are increasingly viewed as traitors to this country, having ushered in more immigration since 1997 than in all preceding centuries in our history combined. 'Diversity is our strength' rings hollow when foreign-born men are responsible for some 40 per cent of sexual crime against women in London. Opposition to immigration now stands at 75 per cent, which is why Reform UK, the party that is the most trusted opponent of immigration, is at 34 per cent in the polls. I could go on, and on. It was truly appalling for Lucy Connolly to call for people to set fire to migrant hotels; even if it was a throwaway remark in the heat of the moment, no one could condone it. The burden of her tweet, however, has only gained salience over the past year. As Nigel Farage said, when he insisted that Lucy did not belong in jail: 'Millions of mothers at that moment in time were feeling exactly the same.' They were, and fathers too, and they will no longer keep quiet. The safety of their children may depend on it. 'Lucy will be a national hero when she gets out,' Orla Minihane told me, and that is why our Government fears her. One ordinary woman, a bereaved mother herself, enraged by the massacre of little girls, has acquired a talismanic force because she articulated the furious anguish of millions, and had to be punished for it. What if Lucy Connolly were to run against Yvette Cooper at the next general election and the patriotic people of West Yorkshire chose to vote to protect British children and showed what they think of a Labour government that is allowing our country to be invaded so there is no Britain anymore? Don't rule it out. We know it now, don't we? This is our last stand.
BBC News
a day ago
- BBC News
Northlands Park in Basildon cordoned off following 'incident'
Police have set up a cordon at a park following an "incident".Officers were called to concerns for the welfare of a man in Northlands Park, Basildon, just before 09:35 Police said it remained at the scene and its response was continuing."We are asking people to avoid the park if at all possible while our inquiries are carried out," it said. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Large police presence with 'forensics' spotted at Basildon park
A LARGE police presence has been seen at Northlands Park with reports of forensics at the scene this morning. Residents have reported seeing at least nine police cars and forensics at the popular Basildon park, near East Mayne since around 9.45am. A police cordon is also reportedly in place at the scene. Essex Police have been contacted for comment. This is a breaking news story. More to follow
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Twelfth man charged over asylum hotel protests in Epping
A 12th person has been charged in connection with incidents of disorder linked to protests outside a hotel housing asylum seekers, police said. Essex Police said demonstrations outside The Bell Hotel, Epping, Essex, on Saturday and Sunday were peaceful.A 52-year-old man from Loughton, Essex, has been charged with a public order offence in connection with previous protests. He remains on bail until a hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on 3 October, police said. Ch Supt Simon Anslow said: "As a police force we aren't here to take sides, we are here simply to protect the public and maintain law and order, facilitating peaceful protest but also allowing all people in Epping to go about their lives with minimal disruption."I'm really grateful to the law-abiding majority of attendees at the two most recent protests in Epping."They've got a right to make their views and their voices heard and they've done so in a peaceful way. The engagement I have seen has been largely respectful."However it's really important that we continue to show that previous violence, against our officers, against property and against people at the hotel, is unacceptable and will be dealt with." The protests - against the use of the hotel - have followed a man living in the hotel being arrested, and subsequently charged, with sexual assault, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual Kebatu, 41, from Ethiopia, has denied the offences and is in custody. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
