Epping Forest District Council has applied for an interim High Court injunction to prevent asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping. Documents relating to the case were lodged with the High Court in London on Tuesday.
The move follows weeks of protests outside the hotel after an asylum seeker was charged with allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, denies sexual assault and is due to stand trial this month.
Council safety concerns
Council leader Chris Whitbread said the hotel's use as asylum accommodation risks causing "irreparable harm to the local community". He warned: "The current situation cannot go on. If the Bell Hotel was a nightclub, we could have closed it down long ago."
Whitbread raised concerns about security screening, stating: "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." He pointed out there are five schools and a residential care home within the vicinity of the hotel.
The council leader 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. We are frustrated that the Home Office continues not to listen."
Planning permission dispute
Whitbread argued that housing asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel constitutes "a clear breach of planning permission". He said: "It is not in use as a hotel, and it doesn't function as a hotel."
He added: "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 council had unanimously voted last month to urge the Government to "immediately and permanently close" the hotel for asylum processing purposes.
Political intervention
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch visited Epping on Monday and claimed women in the area have "stopped jogging in the park because there are men lurking in bushes" due to concerns about the hotel. She told reporters: "The people who I spoke to are having a lot of concerns about safety. Mothers told me that they're worried about their daughters going to school. They're getting harassed."
Badenoch said: "Communities shouldn't have to be paying for this. And what I saw in Epping really, really upset me. I can see why many of those people are protesting." Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst had also reportedly called on the Home Secretary to review the hotel's use for housing asylum seekers.
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
