A protest-hit migrant hotel has become a “feeding ground for unrest”, a council seeking to ban its use for asylum seekers has argued.
Epping Forest District Council had applied for a High Court injunction in a bid to stop asylum seekers being housed at The Bell Hotel, which has been the site of a series of violent protests in recent weeks.
At a hearing at the High Court on Friday, the council told the court that “allowing the status quo is wholly unacceptable, providing a feeding ground for unrest and protest”.
In documents presented to the court, it argued that the use of the hotel for asylum seekers was “a danger to school-age students about to start the new school year, a valid source of anxiety for their parents and teachers, and a disfigurement of the local environment”.
Demonstrators descended on the hotel in July after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault for allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl. Hundreds of anti and pro-immigration protesters have since been demonstrating at the site, with far-right activists also turning up to exploit the situation.
This week, a second asylum seeker staying at the hotel was charged with sexually assaulting a man aged over 16, as well as a number of assault charges.
Philip Coppel KC, representing the council, said that the hotel use was “a very serious problem” which was “getting out of hand”. He said the situation had arisen “because of a breach of planning control by the defendant” Somani Hotels Ltd.
It emerged in documents presented to the court that Australian travel firm CTM, which was behind the controversial Bibby Stockholm barge, had identified the hotel for housing asylum seekers in February 2025.
The firm had been asked by the Home Office to provide additional accommodation to house asylum seekers, court documents showed. The council said it “would appear [CTM] made no enquiries with the planning department of EFDC to check the lawfulness of what they were proposing to do”.
Ahead of the court case, council leader Chris Whitbread said “the current situation cannot go on”, adding: “If The Bell Hotel was a nightclub we could have closed it down long ago”. He said that the council believed that use of the hotel was a “clear breach of planning permission”.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has also called for the hotel to be closed.
Essex Police said that the protests had escalated into violence during demonstrations on July 13, 17, 20 and 24. Officers were assaulted, missiles were thrown, and windows were broken at the hotel, the force said.
Mr Coppel KC told the court that there was “unacceptable” risk to local residents because of how The Bell hotel has been used. He referenced violent protests, an increase in community tension, and alleged criminal behaviour of asylum seekers at the hotel as factors causing “enhanced risk” to local residents.
He said that there were 1,800 students who attended schools 1.2km or less away from the hotel. He argued that The Bell is “no longer a hotel, it has been emptied out of all of the use and attributes, it has changed fundamentally”.
“The place is unrecognisable as a hotel but for an old sign that sits on the outside”, the court heard.
Mr Coppel added that asylum seekers, some of whom are vulnerable, “are being housed in intimidating circumstances…it is the last thing that they need”. He said residents are now having their meals in their rooms, and additional security has been put in place.
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