A High Court judge is set to deliver a crucial ruling today that will determine whether Epping Forest District Council can prevent asylum seekers from being accommodated at a local hotel.
The Legal Battle Over The Bell Hotel
Mr Justice Mould is expected to hand down his judgment at 12pm on Tuesday, November 11, in a case that pits the Essex local authority against Somani Hotels, which owns The Bell Hotel in Epping. The council claims that housing asylum seekers at the establishment breaches planning regulations, while the hotel company maintains the arrangement doesn't constitute a "material change of use".
The Home Office has intervened in the proceedings, describing the council's legal challenge as "misconceived". This represents the latest development in a protracted dispute that has seen both protests and criminal incidents connected to the hotel.
Contentious History and Previous Rulings
Earlier this year, the High Court granted Epping Forest District Council a temporary injunction that would have stopped 138 asylum seekers from being housed at The Bell Hotel beyond September 12. However, this decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal in August, which found it to be "seriously flawed in principle".
The council is now seeking a permanent injunction, while both Somani Hotels and the Home Office are opposing this move. The hotel has actually housed asylum seekers during two previous periods: from May 2020 to March 2021 and again from October 2022 to April 2024, with the council taking no enforcement action during those times.
Protests and Criminal Incidents
The Bell Hotel has become a focal point for community tensions, with Philip Coppel KC, representing the council, stating that the situation has caused "increasingly regular protests" and left residents "increasingly fearful".
These concerns were amplified in July when an asylum seeker housed at the hotel was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Epping. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian national who had arrived in the UK on a small boat just days before the incident, was jailed for 12 months in September. He was later mistakenly released from prison before being re-detained.
Another asylum seeker resident at the hotel, Syrian national Mohammed Sharwarq, received a 16-week prison sentence in September after admitting to assaulting two fellow residents and two members of staff at the site.
Planning Permission Dispute
During last month's hearing, barristers for Somani Hotels revealed that the company had applied for planning permission for a "temporary change of use" in February 2023 but withdrew the application when it hadn't been determined by April 2024.
Jenny Wigley KC, representing Somani Hotels, told the court that there had been "no breach" of planning laws and described the council's decision-making process as "seriously flawed". She explained that the hotel had reopened briefly in August 2022 but returned to housing asylum seekers after seeing its regular use "greatly reduced".
The outcome of today's ruling will have significant implications for how local authorities can respond to hotels being used to accommodate asylum seekers amid the ongoing national debate about housing arrangements for those seeking refuge in the UK.
