.jpeg)
Epping
council wins high court bid to stop hotel housing asylum seekers
Epping
district council had cited disruption and safety concerns, as well as alleged
breach of planning law
Kevin
Rawlinson
Tue 19
Aug 2025 15.59 BST
A hotel
housing asylum seekers that has attracted repeated violent far-right
demonstrations has been ordered closed down by a high court judge.
Mr
Justice Eyre granted an urgent request for an interim injunction against the
owners of the Bell hotel in Epping, Essex, after hearing the local council’s
complaints that they were breaching planning law by changing the site’s use.
Epping
district council also cited disruption caused by the protests, which followed
the charging of two people staying at the hotel with sexual offences, and
concerns for the safety of the asylum seekers themselves.
Lawyers
for the hotel’s owners had argued the council was trying to stop the protests,
and that no planning concerns justified taking the “exceptional step” of
issuing an urgent order to close down the hotel, rather than dealing with the
matter via conventional enforcement action or at a final injunction hearing.
Sitting
at the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday, the judge agreed with the council
that an urgent order was required to close down the operation. He said the
hotel’s operator had until 12 September to comply – subject to a possible
appeal.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário