The Government has “let the residents of Epping down”, the leader of the district council has said after a court ruled asylum seekers could continue to be housed in a hotel in the Essex town.
Councillor Christopher Whitbread said he was “deeply disappointed” after a Court of Appeal ruling on Friday overturned an interim injunction that would have stopped 138 asylum seekers being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping beyond September 12.
The hotel became the focal point of several protests and counter-protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl last month. He has denied the charges.
Asked what the councillor’s message would be to people who may be planning to protest this weekend in Epping, Mr Whitbread told the PA news agency: “We don’t want to see some violent scenes around the hotel or in the town itself that would that would only help the Government’s arguments, and it’s the Government that have let the residents of Epping down.
“I had numerous conversations with various people around this issue, the Home Office were not helpful.”
He said housing asylum seekers at the Bell Hotel was “not right” for Epping residents or those living in the hotel itself, adding: “We made that argument to the previous government and eventually they closed it.
“This government reopened it in April with no real consultation with us, they instructed us that they were going to use it.
“We were instructed on the numbers and such that they were prepared to use it up to, and really they have let down completely the residents of Epping Forest, and I think what underlined it was their legal argument yesterday around the ECHR and the fact that the asylum seekers trump the residents of Epping when it comes to their rights.”
Mr Whitbread went on to say that the UK has welcomed asylum seekers and those in “real need” previously, but that was “not what we’re seeing at the moment”.
He continued: “But what we’re seeing at the moment is more that these aren’t real asylum seekers who are desperately seeking a peaceful life, these are people who are coming across in small boats on to the shores of our country, they dispose in some cases of their ID, therefore we don’t know who they are.
“And in this case, we’ve got over 100 people not known in the Bell Hotel close to residential properties, close to local schools.”
Speaking outside the court after the ruling, Ken Williamson, member of cabinet for Epping Forest District Council said the Government needs to take responsibility for the “trauma and disruption” in the Essex town over recent weeks.
He said: “While Epping Forest has brought the wider asylum seeker debate into sharp national focus, the concern and motivation of Epping Forest District Council throughout has been the wellbeing of our local residents. Where we had clarity and resolution, we now have doubt and confusion.”
“The battle is not over and we will continue the fight,” he added.
In a summary of their ruling, three senior judges highlighted that Somani Hotels, which owns the Bell Hotel, had previously sought planning permission from the council to temporarily change the hotel’s use to accommodate asylum seekers rather than paying members of the public in 2023, but that the council “did not process the application” for more than a year.
Asked why the application had taken so long to process, Mr Whitbread said he was “not close enough to the detail” to give a “full answer”.
He added: “I think, you know, you have to ask yourself ‘was the company chasing the planning application during that time?’.
“In my knowledge of planning applications, if they’ve been delayed, that the company going for the planning application will be chasing the council.
“Did they chase the council? We don’t know.”
The council could still be granted an injunction following a full hearing of the legal claim, which is due to be heard in October.
