Epping Council has applied for an injunction to stop migrants being placed in The Bell Hotel after weeks of protests.
The High Court in London received documents on Tuesday from Epping Forest District Council which described “the clear risk of further escalating community tensions and urgency of the need for the present situation to be brough under control”.
The council is requesting a ban to be put in place after 14 days if an injunction is granted.
At a meeting on July 24, councillors from Epping Forest voted unanimously to call on the Home Office to close the hotel with immediate effect.
A phased closure of another facility in North Weald Bassett has also been called for by the authority.
It comes after Chris Whitbread, the council leader, local MPs, Police and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst, and the leader of Essex County Council all called on the Home Secretary to act.
PICTURED: Protesters take to the streets in Epping in their continued demonstration against the hotel
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PALast month Hirst wrote a letter to Yvette Cooper describing the hotel as “unsuitable” for housing migrants, and warned the presence of the asylum seekers was “clearly cresting community tension”.
Whitbread said: “The current situation cannot go on. If the Bell Hotel was a nightclub, we could have closed it down long ago.
“So far as the council is aware, there is no criminal record checking of individuals who might only have been in the country a matter of days before being housed at the hotel.
“There are five schools and a residential care home within the vicinity of the hotel.
MORE ON THE EPPING PROTESTS:
Protesters gather in Epping outside an asylum hotel in July | PA“The use by the Home Office of the premises for asylum seekers poses a clear risk of further escalating community tensions already at a high, and the risk of irreparable harm to the local community.”
He added: “This will only increase with the start of the new school year.
“We are frustrated that the Home Office continues not to listen.”
The district council has said that so far, they have not received a substantive response from the Government.
Protests emerged across Epping with placards reading ‘no more silence – Government fail – we fight’ | PAWhitbread continued: “We are doing this on behalf of our local community.”
The council leader said they felt they were “left with no choice” because “central government is not listening”.
