At least thirteen councils across the UK are pushing ahead with legal action over the use of migrant hotels in their area. This comes after the Home Office and the owner of the Bell Hotel, Somani Hotels, challenged the rulingwhich would have prevented 138 asylum seekers from being housed there beyond September 12. On Friday, the Court of Appeal overturned the High Court injunction, arguing that the human rights of asylum seekers outweighed the safety concerns of local families.
Epping Forest District Council sought and obtained the injunction against the Bell Hotel after weeks of protests took place outside the building. This followed a 38-year-old Ethiopian asylum seeker, who was living at the hotel, being charged with sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl. Despite the injunction being overturned, a number of other councils are still pressing ahead with legal action.
At least thirteen local authorities across all parties are following Epping’s lead, The Times reports. This includes Reform UK councils, such as West Northamptonshire and Staffordshire.
At least four Labour-run councils are doing the same, including Wirral, Stevenage, Tamworth and Rushmoor authorities.
Last week, Wirral council said it was “actively considering all options available to us to ensure that any use of hotels or other premises in Wirral is lawful and does not ride roughshod over planning regulations on the wishes of our communities”.
Similarly, Stevenage said it was “actively investigating” alleged breaches of planning control relating to the Novotel Hotel in Stevenage.
Conservative leader of Broxbourne council Corina Gander said her authority was continuing with its legal bid to close the Delta Hotel in Cheshunt.
Asked if the Court of Appeal decision had put the council off from seeking its own legal action, Gander told Times Radio: “Absolutely not.”
“The route that we’re going down is planning enforcement. So we’ve issued this week a planning contravention notice, which will give us enough evidence to prove that the hotel is not a hotel, it is effectively a hostel,” she said.
Spelthorne council in Surrey also said there had been “no change” in its bid to push ahead with legal action. This follows the Stanwell Hotel in Staines changing from housing women and families to single males.
