The Bell Hotel in Epping can continue to house asylum seekers, a judge controversially ruled today.
The ruling follows months of anti-immigration protests at the Essex hotel, sparked by the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl by one of its residents.
Ethiopian Hadush Kebatu, 41, was found guilty and jailed for multiple counts of sexual assault before being mistakenly released, re-arrested and finally deported.
Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) took legal action against the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels, claiming that housing asylum seekers there breaches planning rules.
Its lawyers said the housing of asylum seekers is a ‘material change of use’ and has caused ‘increasingly regular protests’.
The Home Office intervened in the legal case, telling the court the council’s bid was ‘misconceived’.
Mr Justice Mould dismissed the claim today and said in a judgment that it is ‘not a case in which it is just and convenient for this court to grant an injunction’.
The Conservatives said a court ruling that asylum seekers can continue to be housed in the Bell Hotel in Essex was a ‘slap in the face to the people of Epping’.
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.’
Referring to the Home Office’s intervention in the case, he said ‘Labour’s lawyers fought tooth and nail to keep this hotel open’.
EFDC were granted a temporary injunction earlier this year following protests outside the hotel, which would have stopped 138 asylum seekers 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’. EFDC then sought a permanent injunction through a three-day hearing last month.
Mr Justice Mould in an 87-page judgment: ‘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.’
The judge said the council’s desire to ‘find a swift resolution’ to public disorder and community tensions after protests began in July was ‘understandable’ but ‘it did not follow’ that an injunction was appropriate.
He continued: ‘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.’
‘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 case of former Bell Hotel resident Hadush Kebatu has become emblematic of the problems plaguing Britain’s immigration and justice systems.
The 38-year-old was convicted of sexual assault, harassment and inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity in September and jailed for a year.
But he was mistakenly freed from HMP Chelmsford just a month into his sentence, sparking a huge manhunt.
After being re-arrested, he threatened to launch a legal challenge against his removal and even said he was considering lodging a new asylum claim with the Home Office.
Kebatu was only deported after being given a ‘discretionary’ payment of £500 by the Home Office in return for going quietly.
Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, a 24-year-old Algerian sex offender, and British fraudster Billy Smith were also released in error from HMP Wandsworth two weeks ago.
Kaddour-Cherif was arrested last week and Smith, 35, returned to Wandsworth of his own accord.
