Epping LIVE: Bell Hotel will STILL house migrants in high court bombshell | UK | News

A sign near the Bell Hotel in Epping was defaced with graffiti resembling a St George’s Cross, just hours before a High Court judge granted an injunction that would prevent asylum seekers from being housed there. The Bell Hotel became the focus of several protests and counter-protests over the summer after an asylum seeker was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Epping in July. Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, an Ethiopian national who arrived in the UK on a small boat days before the incident, was sentenced to 12 months in prison in September.

Today, November 11, a High Court judge will decide whether Essex council’s injunction to prevent asylum seekers from being housed in a hotel has been successful. Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) is taking legal action against the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels, for allegedly accommodating asylum seekers there is against planning rules. The company disputes that claim, with its lawyers telling a hearing in London last month that the move did not constitute a “material change of use”. The Home Office is intervening in the case and told the court the council’s proposal was “misunderstood”.

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