The local council in Epping is exploring all possible options to shut a migrant hotel which has been the scene of several large protests this month, a councillor has revealed. Demonstrations on Sunday were the latest in a series of protests outside The Bell Hotel since July 13 after an asylum seeker was charged with allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
Epping Forest District Council has already voted to urge the Government to close the site in Essex, which remains open, to migrants but is understood to now be weighing up other options to shut the hotel. When asked by the Express whether the council could look to use licensing or planning laws to close The Bell Hotel to asylum seekers, Tory Councillor Holly Whitbread said: “The council have been exploring all the various different options and they’re still looking into options. Unfortunately, from what I understand, and I’m not the planning cabinet member, but in terms of the hotel being used, it’s being used lawfully but we are exploring what options are available to us as a council to find other ways of challenging it.”
Cllr Whitbread, who represents Epping on both the district council, confirmed this is in regards to the Government’s decision to keep the hotel open.
“The Home Office, we’ve met with them and they keep using the line, ‘we’re committed to closing all [migrant] hotels by the end of this parliament’. Well, the end of parliament is four years away, which is obviously not good enough.”
Cllr Whitbread added Home Secretary Yvette Cooper “needs to get a grip” on the situation.
Protestors against the hotel gathered outside the site again on Sunday, while counter-protestors also demonstrated.
Essex Police said it had established protest restrictions due to repeated serious disruption, violence, and harm to the community during previous demonstrations.
This included a ban on anyone wearing face coverings and the force said three people were arrested during Sunday’s protest.
Cllr Whitbread, who last week put forward the council motion calling on the Home Office to shut the hotel, said the latest protest was “relatively peaceful” but accused some non-locals of “protest tourism” during the demos which first started more than two weeks ago.
She said: “It seemed to be wrapped up before early evening which was good to see. What I didn’t like seeing was the fact there was kind of professional protesters bused in from London or came in on the Tube from London.
“What I personally found frustrating by these protests is actually there’s a lot of people from the two extremes of politics, coming in and really actually undermining the legitimate views of local people who were trying to make their point and that was when we saw the kind of violence.
“That wasn’t the local people who were trying to make the strong point against the hotel. I do think that kind of protest tourism did undermine the message somewhat.”
The councillor said most people in Epping want the hotel to close and the protests to stop.
The Essex Police and Crime Commissioner hasdemanded to meet Ms Cooper on Monday over the continued use of The Bell Hotel as migrant accommodation.
Roger Hirst said the hotel is in an inappropriate location and is costing police “hundreds of thousands of pounds” in officer overtime to police the protests, The Telegraph reports.
Cllr Whitbread said Epping has become the “epicentre of the national debate around the illegal immigration crisis”.
She accused the Government of not listening and reiterated the council’s calls to close the hotel to asylum seekers.
“Obviously, they’ve got asylum applications to process but the hotel in Epping is untenable,” she told the Express.
“It’s no longer safe for the wider community in Epping but also the people in the hotel. I don’t understand why the Home Office aren’t listening.
“They’re not listening to the local MPs, police and fire commissioner, the council or indeed the local people.
“It’s very frustrating and I hope they will listen soon.”
Protests outside The Bell Hotel were sparked earlier this month by the charging of asylum seeker Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, 38, with sexual assault after he allegedly attempted to kiss a 14-year-old girl.
He denied the charge at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court and will stand trial in August.