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Epping Forest Independent Councillor, Shane Yerrell said: “I’m shocked and I’m gutted for the family and both victims of the sexual self, there was a 14 year old girl and a 26 year old. I know how much they’ve been hurting in all of this.”It’s not about race religion or colour. We should all love each other but there’s been too many incidents and this hotel was too close to a school. Two sexual assaults, there’s been incidents inside the hotel, where a cleaner and a chef was attacked.”

He added: “There’s been young girls followed to from the school saying that they’re pretty asked for their Snapchats. That is a massive safeguarding risk. And that is why the hotels should be closed.”My message for the government and Keir Starmer is when are you going to start listening to the voice of local people? And where is your thoughts and consideration to the two victims that were sexually assaulted not far from this hotel?”

Martin Cousins, 77, told the Express: “It’s taking the thing out of its original context. Out of all proportion. It’s created a very unpleasant sensation within the town. It’s been very divisive.”

He added: “The fact that the place remains open is no concern from my point of view.”

Express reporter, Aaron Newbury is reporting live from outside The Bell Hotel.

He said: “The Bell Hotel in Epping can keep housing asylum seekers, a High Court has ruled today after a challenge brought by the local conservative held council.

“The Bell Hotel has been the epicenter of protests after one of its now former residents sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl.”

Joanne Bird, 45, mother of three children including a teenage girl, told the Express: “I’m not happy about this at all, especially after the sexual assault a migrant did. I don’t feel safe at all.”

She referred to Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu.

She continued: “The government needs a drastic change. We need to stop being so woke and start looking after our own.

“I want a complete overhaul of the immigration process. Women and children are fine, but the people that are coming in are all men.

“How come they get free room, food, gym, when British people are suffering?”

A Home Office spokesperson said about the ruling: “We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels in this country.

“This government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well underway to move asylum seekers into more suitable accommodation such as military bases, to ease pressure on communities across the country.

“We are working to do so as swiftly as possible as part of an orderly, planned and sustained programme. This judgment allows us to do that.”

Epping Forest District Council claimed that Somani Hotels, who owns The Bell Hotel, were breaching planning rules by having asylum seekers reside at the site. The local council told the High Court that the hotel had become “a feeding ground for unrest and protest” and sought a High Court injuction.

The Home Office also intervened stating that the bid was “misconceived.”

The injunction was overturned today by the Court of Appeal. Mr Justice ruled that this was “not a case where it would be just or appropriate for the court to issue an injunction.” He added that the council had failed to present any evidence supporting its claim that the asylum seekers were likely to engage in criminal or anti-social activity.

Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Philp, said: “This is a dark day for local democracy and a slap in the face to the people of Epping.

“A Labour Government has once again put the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British citizens.The people of Epping have been silenced in their own town.

“Their council fought for them, their voices were ignored.”

Speaking about the Home Office’s intervention in the case, he said: “Labour’s lawyers fought tooth and nail to keep this hotel open.”

Mr Justice Mould said Epping Forest District Council had not called evidence to support an argument over the propensity of asylum seekers to commit crimes or be involved in anti-social behaviour.

“In my judgment, in order to begin to consider whether there is any force or substance in that contention, I should need to see an evidence-based and clear and statistically sound analysis of the relative incidence of criminal and anti-social behaviour amongst asylum seekers, as a defined cohort of persons, in comparison to a properly defined cohort of the settled population.

“There is no such evidence before the court. The fact that persons accommodated in asylum accommodation pursuant to sections 95 and 98 of the 1999 Act from time to time commit criminal offences or behave antisocially provides no reliable basis for asserting any particular propensity of asylum seekers to engage in criminal or anti-social behaviour.

“Persons who are members of the settled population also commit crimes and behave antisocially from time to time.”

A police officer has moved metal fences to close off more of the entrance of the hotel. Assisted by two security guards, it appears the fencing is being used to cordon off the area, Express reporter, Aaron Newbury at the scene, reports.

The Express understands protests are expected later today and the fencing will be used to cordon off parts of the road.

Mr Justice Mould also said in his written judgment about the Bell Hotel: “The claimant’s desire to find a swift resolution to the disruption to public order and the community tensions which followed the outbreak of street protests on July 11 2025 was reasonable.

“It does not however follow that the solution lay in an application for an injunction.”

“Public opposition to the development of land, even if that opposition manifests itself in street protests, is not in itself evidence of planning of environmental harm generated by the development to which there is such strong objection.

“The police have a panoply of powers to manage and regulate street protests and to enforce public order.”

The High Court judge added: “There are countervailing factors in this case which are properly to be weighed in the balance against the planning and environment harm which may reasonably be said to result from the postulated breach of planning control.

“In particular, the evidence before me clearly establishes that there is a continuing need to source contingency accommodation for asylum seekers from hotels to enable the Home Secretary to discharge her statutory responsibilities under the 1999 Act.”

The hotel can keep being used to house asylum seekers after the High Court rejected the appeal by the local conservative-led council.

It became the focus of protests earlier this year after one of its former residents, Hadush Kebatu, sexually assaulted a woman and a 14-year-old girl.

He was arrested and then wrongly freed from an Essex prison. After a two-day manhunt he was found in Finsbury Park in London and then deported.

In an 87-page judgment, Mr Justice Mould said: “I have reached the clear conclusion that this is not a case in which it is just and convenient for this court to grant an injunction.

“I give due respect to the claimant’s judgment that the current use of the Bell as contingency accommodation for asylum seekers constitutes a material change in the use of those premises which requires planning permission.

“Nevertheless, I have not been persuaded that an injunction is a commensurate response to that postulated breach of planning control.

“The breach is far from being flagrant.”

Asylum seekers can continue to be housed in the Bell Hotel in Essex, after Epping Forest District Council failed to secure a High Court injunction that would block them from living there.

Two residents have left the Bell Hotel with their faces covered ahead of the expected ruling. The ruling is expected to take place at 12pm.

An Epping resident who did not give her name told Express reporter, Aaron Newbury, ahead of the ruling: “I don’t think they’ll let it close. They would have to shut all the others”

She went on to claim: “The hotels caused all sorts of problems.”

The Bell Hotel, which is being used to house asylum seekers, has been at the epicentre of nationwide protests about immigration in the UK.

Flags have been hung on every lamp post on the lead up toward the Bell Hotel and the property has been cordoned off with layers of metal fencing.

Two security guards are in front of the hotel.

A combination of Union flags and St George’s Cross flags, some bearing the word “England,” have been attached to street furniture.

Mr Justice Mould is expected to hand down judgment at 12pm today, November 11.

Today’s judge’s decision comes just weeks after a High Court judge granted the Epping council a temporary injunction that would have stopped 138 asylum seekers from being housed there beyond September 12.

But this was overturned by the Court of Appeal in August, which found the decision to be “seriously flawed in principle”.

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