August 25, 2025
The Epping Council goes to the High Court to remove migrants from the hotel

The Epping Council goes to the High Court to remove migrants from the hotel

The Epping Forest District Council applied to the High Court to prevent the asylum seekers in a hotel that was at the center of protests.

The local authority has asked an injunction to ban the use of the Bell Hotel as asylum seekers for fourteen days.

The guide of the council said that he took the measures because “the current situation cannot go on” and added that the Interior Ministry “continues to not listen”.

Since last month, protests have been held outside the hotel after an Ethiopian asylum seeker had been accused of sexually attacking days after his arrival in Great Britain.

Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, denied the indictment when he appeared at the Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court, and was taken into custody.

Credit: YouTube / @ay_audits-c4n

In a statement on Tuesday, Cllr Chris Whitbread said: “The current situation cannot go on. If the Bell Hotel were a nightclub, we could have completed it a long time ago.

“As far as the council is, there are no criminal records on people who may have been only a few days in the hotel in the hotel.

“There are five schools near the hotel and a residential care center.

“The use by the home office of the premises for asylum seekers has a clear risk that the tensions of the community is already high and the risk of irreparable damage to the local community. We are frustrated that the Ministry of the Interior is still not listening.”

The conservative council claims that the establishment of asylum seekers to the Bell Hotel is a “clear violation of the building permit” because it is not used as a hotel.

CLLR Whitbread said he hoped that it should be a “catalyst for the ban on the use of the Bell Hotel” for migrants “catalyst for the ban on the use of the Bell Hotel”.

Demonstrators demonstrate last month outside the Bell Hotel with which asylum seekers were accommodated

Demonstrators demonstrate last month outside the Bell Hotel with which asylum seekers were accommodated – Yui Mok/Pa

At the end of the last month, the Essex police said 14 people were charged with protests outside the hotel, and there were 23 arrests.

Demonstrators that affect the use of the hotel for migrants were also confronted by counter -protests, which at times led to hundreds of demonstrators in the region.

Since the demonstrations in Epping began, there have been other migrant protests in other parts of the country, including in Heathrow and in the financial sector of Canary Wharf.

CLLR Holly Whitbread, which is responsible for the finances of the forest district council, said PA: “In terms of the effects of the community and the pressure on the local infrastructure, it is simply not sustainable, especially in view of the amount of police resources that I know was largely peaceful for some of the protests.”

“Theoretically, the home office should be based on the bill for those in the hotel, but I think reality is often different.”

The Council claims that the placement of asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel is a clear violation of the building permit because it is not used as a hotel

The Council claims that the placement of asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel is a clear violation of the building permit because it is not used as a hotel – Jordan Pettitt/Pa

Other local authorities have previously searched for the use of hotels as asylum accommodation. Councils, including the Ipswich Borough Council, the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, the Fenland District Council and the city council of Stoke-on-Trent, preliminary interim dispositions were granted, but were not continued.

In January 2023, the Supreme Court decided to continue an injunction from the previous Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where a hotel by the sea had been set up to asylum seekers.

The court found that the local plan of the area had a guideline to protect the coast and that the hostels were not allowed there.

Matt Vickers, the Minister of the Shadow Police, said that the Epping Forest District Council was “absolutely right to take a position”.

He added: “Communities like Epping should not be forced to bear the burden of Labor’s broken asylum policy.

“This is the direct result of the decision of Labor to lift the boundaries of Britain and tear down the deterrent, which have set up the conservatives. The conservatives will remove all illegal arrivals immediately and use adequate deterrent so that cities like Epping are never brought back into this position.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior said: “It would be inappropriate to receive a statement while legal proceedings have not yet been completed.”

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