Migrants Must Leave Epping Hotel, High Court Rules
Migrants are due to be moved out of a controversial asylum hotel after the council secured an injunction to close it. The Mail has more.
Council leaders won the first stage of their battle to close the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, on planning permission grounds after it became an epicentre of anti-immigration protests, including some which turned violent.
The demonstrations were sparked when a migrant living at the hotel was charged with a series of sexual offences, including some against a 14 year-old girl.
Epping Forest District Council was granted a temporary injunction by the High Court in London today.
It came after the Home Office unsuccessfully attempted to block the legal challenge, claiming its closure would cause “acute difficulties” and breach asylum seekers’ “fundamental human rights”.
The injunction means the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels Limited, must stop housing asylum seekers at the site by September 12th.
Ministers will now fear other areas of the country will attempt similar tactics to get unpopular migrant hotels shuttered.
Reform leader Nigel Farage said he hoped Epping council’s victory “provides inspiration to others across the country”.
Edward Brown KC, for the Home Office, warned the High Court the move “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests”.
It would also “substantially interfere” with the Home Office’s legal duty to avoiding a breach of the asylum seekers’ human rights, he said. …
Outside the Royal Courts of Justice, Epping council leader Chris Whitbread said: “This is a decision that’s important to Epping Forest, but also important to councils up and down the country, and it shows that the Government cannot ignore planning rules, just like no-one else can ignore planning rules.”
He added: “This is only the start of a process and subject to appeal, we recognise that, but all things being equal, the Bell Hotel will be empty by September 12th, and that’s really important for the students, residents, businesses of Epping Forest.” …
Barristers for the council claimed Somani Hotels breached planning rules as the site is not being used for its intended purpose as a hotel, stating there was an “overwhelming case for an injunction”.
Somani Hotels defended the claim with its barristers telling the court in London that a “draconian” injunction would cause asylum seekers “hardship”.
They added that “political views” were not grounds for an injunction to be made.
They also said that contracts to house asylum seekers were a “financial lifeline” for the hotel, which was only 1% full in August 2022, when it was open to paying customers. …
Mr Justice Eyre refused to give Somani Hotels the green light to challenge his ruling, but the company could still ask the Court of Appeal for the go-ahead to appeal.
In his judgment, he said that while the council had not “definitively established” Somani Hotels had breached planning rules, “the strength of the claimant’s case is such that it weighs in favour” of granting the injunction.
He continued that the “risk of injustice is greater” if a temporary injunction were not granted.
A further hearing on whether the injunction should be made permanent is expected to be held at a later date, and is expected to last two days.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
28 Comments
Oldest
NewestMost Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Heretic
7 months ago
“Somani is a family-run firm directed by Hassanali Karmali Alibhai Somani and Nilufa Hassan Somani. ”
“Despite modest income, the company holds assets of around £8 million against £4.6 million in liabilities, leaving net assets of roughly £3.4 million. Lawyers for the business have admitted that Government asylum contracts have become a “financial lifeline”, after normal trade slumped to just 1% occupancy in 2022.”
The occu[pancy slumped because it became a rubbish hotel. It used to have international holiday makers who wanted a cheap place to stay just outrside London without realising how long the Centreal Line would take them into the centre. It used to have northern football teams stay when attending London contests – it wasn’t good enough for them.
Not many years ago it was a popular venue for local society dinners, etc. That was a hang-over from when it was TrustHouse Forte venue – cl;assy.
Its most likely future will be a housing estate or a care home.
On a smaller scale, the asylum issue affects us out here in the leafy shires. It’s not so dramatic as the hotel chaos, but more insidious: the cost of private rented single- and multi-occupancy housing. Long story short: a private landlord can make more out of two young healthy adult “asylum seekers” on benefits than out of one single indigenous retiree, occupying about the same space. The adults then have, jointly, considerable purchasing power and can outbid the single retiree, so market forces dictate that rents rapidly rise, to match the value of the handouts (because these are matched to the rents, in vicious circle). This is not necessarily a “financial lifeline” for the landlords but is a very handy source of increased income. And that is even before assorted “cousins” make an appearance. This “rent inflation” may not be critical at the moment, but is a pressure-cooker building up a head of steam.
“Edward Brown KC, for the Home Office, warned the High Court the move “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests”.”
Same tactic as we have had from the start. Import millions of aliens, wind people up, people protest. Establishment says protest is dangerous because we have these millions of aliens now so we must be silent about things we don’t like. Race Relations Act 1965, and ever since. Same message. No debate, because racism then pogroms.
I wonder where they will put them – presumably in some other hotel somewhere else with a more compliant council.
Exactly, if you enter illegally you break the law, and should NEVER be considered for asylum… simple really, you’d break the incentive overnight, just like the Australians did
You think they’ll “ask”? I wouldn’t put it past this government to “order”, backed up by a publicity campaign portraying illegal immigrants as asylum seekers, driven out of their homelands to escape terror, death and persecution, and mostly consisting of vulnerable women and children. It will all be lies, of course, but the British populace proved itself totally gullible over Covid, so all bets are off.
It’s more insidious than that: The High Court found that housing asylum seekers in hotels violated planning rules. The statement of the KC thus means “government ought to be allowed to break the law because if it isn’t, people might protest against similar government actions elsewhere and these protestes might turn violent.”
Somewhat more polemically worded, the KC seems to be of the opinion that government must be allowed to break the law with impunity because otherwise, people be encouraged to protest against government law-breaking.
That government simply mustn’t break the law, regardless of what other people might do, doesn’t seem to have crossed his mind. Or that people are perfectly entitled to protest against government law-breaking.
I was in the Forest Gate pub when that bottle of fizz was sold. While I congratulate the Council on getting the court order I must add:
1 It was genuine local parents especially mothers who started this. That included a local Reform Party official.
2 The Tories were part of the problem nationally. While some lof the local Councillors actually disagreed with national policy on immigration they all acted to try to save their seats at the next clouncil elections.
3 Cllr Whitbread (pictured) would likely have lost his County Council d
seat to Reform if his Essex Council had not asked the Labour government to cancel this year’s elections. Whatever his merits he is an illegitimate county councillor.
I very much doubt if the Court’s order will be allowed to operate actoss the country. There are not enough former army bases (sold off by the Tories) or HMOs to accommodate the tens of thousands the government insists we must find homes for.
Meanwhile, welcome to the new normal. Did anyone have lockdown drills when they were at school? We just had fire drills, and I always hoped it would land during maths class. But this is crazy and a sign of the times, I think. And the reasons they need to scare these kids so badly? Because there might be an aggressive individual or dangerous animal outside, apparently. To be fair, if you’ve a load of migrants dumped in your community nearby a school that might not be as far-fetched as it sounds;
”How did we get here?
Our government has slowly normalised the idea that schools should be on terror attack alert. Instead of being places of safety, learning, and childhood, schools are now drilled in how to respond to the unthinkable.
This isn’t something any parent should have to accept as “normal”. Our children deserve classrooms filled with curiosity and creativity not constant fear and preparation for worst-case scenarios.
We need to ask serious questions about why this has become part of everyday school life, and whether enough is being done to tackle the root causes rather than just managing the symptoms.
Childhood should be about growing, not surviving.”
An acquaintance of mine recently visited a school with some of her work colleagues on a business and education activity day when one of these lockdown exercises was launched. They had no prior warning, and it left one of the visitors severely traumatised. The children just saw it as a change from their normal activities, but the adults feared for their lives.
I know we aren’t really allowed to use the expression ‘man up’ but it seems fitting here – the adult was traumatised, but the kids rolled with it…? good on the kids
all this school lockdown thing is inspired by America – apparently common there due to school shootings etc
Matt Dalby
7 months ago
This is fantastic news for the people of Epping and hopefully other people with a council that listens to it’s residents and will seek judicial reviews about other hotels. No doubt Reform led councils will do this and hopefully a lot of Tory ones. Sadly it won’t make any difference, at least for a few years, as they’ll be plenty of Loony Left councils, either Liebour, Lib Dem or watermelon (Green on the outside red on the inside) that’ll continue to put their dogma ahead of the wishes of local people. They won’t try to close crime hotels so the government will still be able to let them in and give them a life of luxury. Hopefully over time more and more people will be so fed up of their area being turned into crime hotspots that they’ll vote for councillors prepared to do something about it. Alternatively the government will ensure any appeal is heard by one of the numerous Judas judges who are determined to play their part in destroying the UK. If this happens the appeal will succeed and every council will have to accept however many migrants the government decides to dump on them. Sadly my… Read more »
davidcraig68
7 months ago
How long before our rulers put massive taxes on homes worth over £500,000 but you get a tax reduction if you agree to put up a Third-Worlder in your spare bedroom?
Jackthegripper
7 months ago
Judges will do the government’s bidding and close down the gimmigrant hotels. The government will then claim they are doing what they promised.
This is bad news as they’ll be distributed around the country to cause havoc.
“… the move “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests”.
Why, when peaceful protest and legal due process achieved the desired result? Poor dear – can’t blame it on “Far Right thugs”… but lives in hope.
”It would also “substantially interfere” with the Home Office’s legal duty to avoiding a breach of the asylum seekers’ human rights, he said. …”
So-called asylum seekers have no “Right” to be accommodated in luxury surroundings, and they are not “asylum seekers” until a tribunal has established that, and none of them are seeking asylum from France … so they are not “asylum seekers” at all.
The Government has a statutory duty to avoid breaching the Rights of its citizens, to ensure their safety and security, and spend tax revenue only on the things for which it is raised.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
“Somani is a family-run firm directed by Hassanali Karmali Alibhai Somani and Nilufa Hassan Somani. ”
“Despite modest income, the company holds assets of around £8 million against £4.6 million in liabilities, leaving net assets of roughly £3.4 million. Lawyers for the business have admitted that Government asylum contracts have become a “financial lifeline”, after normal trade slumped to just 1% occupancy in 2022.”
Reform UK council boss ‘instructing legal teams’ after Epping migrant hotel court win | Politics | News | Express.co.uk
So how many more Bangladeshi businessmen are cashing in on British government handouts for Fake Asylum Hotels, we wonder?
These government handouts of British Taxpayers Money are just encouraging the whole Human Trafficking Scam.
The occu[pancy slumped because it became a rubbish hotel. It used to have international holiday makers who wanted a cheap place to stay just outrside London without realising how long the Centreal Line would take them into the centre. It used to have northern football teams stay when attending London contests – it wasn’t good enough for them.
Not many years ago it was a popular venue for local society dinners, etc. That was a hang-over from when it was TrustHouse Forte venue – cl;assy.
Its most likely future will be a housing estate or a care home.
On a smaller scale, the asylum issue affects us out here in the leafy shires. It’s not so dramatic as the hotel chaos, but more insidious: the cost of private rented single- and multi-occupancy housing. Long story short: a private landlord can make more out of two young healthy adult “asylum seekers” on benefits than out of one single indigenous retiree, occupying about the same space. The adults then have, jointly, considerable purchasing power and can outbid the single retiree, so market forces dictate that rents rapidly rise, to match the value of the handouts (because these are matched to the rents, in vicious circle). This is not necessarily a “financial lifeline” for the landlords but is a very handy source of increased income. And that is even before assorted “cousins” make an appearance. This “rent inflation” may not be critical at the moment, but is a pressure-cooker building up a head of steam.
“Edward Brown KC, for the Home Office, warned the High Court the move “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests”.”
Same tactic as we have had from the start. Import millions of aliens, wind people up, people protest. Establishment says protest is dangerous because we have these millions of aliens now so we must be silent about things we don’t like. Race Relations Act 1965, and ever since. Same message. No debate, because racism then pogroms.
I wonder where they will put them – presumably in some other hotel somewhere else with a more compliant council.
People should be protesting against housing them AT ALL, ANYWHERE!
The wise Australians DIDN’T LET THEM EVEN SET FOOT ON AUSSIE SOIL, and that policy was extremely effective. We should emulate their fine example.
Now there will be further hearings, endless legal appeals, more money for lawyers, only to have it all overturned at some later date.
Exactly, if you enter illegally you break the law, and should NEVER be considered for asylum… simple really, you’d break the incentive overnight, just like the Australians did
Where will they put them? One of the Sanctuary boroughs.
Waiting and dreading that government announcement, we are asking people with spare rooms to….
…spare rooms and young children to…
You think they’ll “ask”? I wouldn’t put it past this government to “order”, backed up by a publicity campaign portraying illegal immigrants as asylum seekers, driven out of their homelands to escape terror, death and persecution, and mostly consisting of vulnerable women and children. It will all be lies, of course, but the British populace proved itself totally gullible over Covid, so all bets are off.
It’s more insidious than that: The High Court found that housing asylum seekers in hotels violated planning rules. The statement of the KC thus means “government ought to be allowed to break the law because if it isn’t, people might protest against similar government actions elsewhere and these protestes might turn violent.”
Somewhat more polemically worded, the KC seems to be of the opinion that government must be allowed to break the law with impunity because otherwise, people be encouraged to protest against government law-breaking.
That government simply mustn’t break the law, regardless of what other people might do, doesn’t seem to have crossed his mind. Or that people are perfectly entitled to protest against government law-breaking.
Good point
Somani Hotels Ltd is owned by SOMANI, Hassanali Karmali Alibhai, information freely available on gov.uk
I’m surprised they aren’t called “Somali Hotels, hotels for Somali’s”
I was in the Forest Gate pub when that bottle of fizz was sold. While I congratulate the Council on getting the court order I must add:
1 It was genuine local parents especially mothers who started this. That included a local Reform Party official.
2 The Tories were part of the problem nationally. While some lof the local Councillors actually disagreed with national policy on immigration they all acted to try to save their seats at the next clouncil elections.
3 Cllr Whitbread (pictured) would likely have lost his County Council d
seat to Reform if his Essex Council had not asked the Labour government to cancel this year’s elections. Whatever his merits he is an illegitimate county councillor.
I very much doubt if the Court’s order will be allowed to operate actoss the country. There are not enough former army bases (sold off by the Tories) or HMOs to accommodate the tens of thousands the government insists we must find homes for.
Yes but we are gradually backing the government into a corner.
Sooner of later they will be forced to come out with serious violence against the person at which point we win..
They are screwed, they’ve lost but haven’t realised it yet because reality for them is kryptonite.
Ok, but are they being sent back to shitolistan or being just hidden in some “clever way” in hmos where the problem will be even worse?
Meanwhile, welcome to the new normal. Did anyone have lockdown drills when they were at school? We just had fire drills, and I always hoped it would land during maths class. But this is crazy and a sign of the times, I think. And the reasons they need to scare these kids so badly? Because there might be an aggressive individual or dangerous animal outside, apparently. To be fair, if you’ve a load of migrants dumped in your community nearby a school that might not be as far-fetched as it sounds;
”How did we get here?
Our government has slowly normalised the idea that schools should be on terror attack alert. Instead of being places of safety, learning, and childhood, schools are now drilled in how to respond to the unthinkable.
This isn’t something any parent should have to accept as “normal”. Our children deserve classrooms filled with curiosity and creativity not constant fear and preparation for worst-case scenarios.
We need to ask serious questions about why this has become part of everyday school life, and whether enough is being done to tackle the root causes rather than just managing the symptoms.
Childhood should be about growing, not surviving.”
https://x.com/suespeaksup/status/1957831980604653646
An acquaintance of mine recently visited a school with some of her work colleagues on a business and education activity day when one of these lockdown exercises was launched. They had no prior warning, and it left one of the visitors severely traumatised. The children just saw it as a change from their normal activities, but the adults feared for their lives.
I know we aren’t really allowed to use the expression ‘man up’ but it seems fitting here – the adult was traumatised, but the kids rolled with it…? good on the kids
all this school lockdown thing is inspired by America – apparently common there due to school shootings etc
This is fantastic news for the people of Epping and hopefully other people with a council that listens to it’s residents and will seek judicial reviews about other hotels. No doubt Reform led councils will do this and hopefully a lot of Tory ones. Sadly it won’t make any difference, at least for a few years, as they’ll be plenty of Loony Left councils, either Liebour, Lib Dem or watermelon (Green on the outside red on the inside) that’ll continue to put their dogma ahead of the wishes of local people. They won’t try to close crime hotels so the government will still be able to let them in and give them a life of luxury. Hopefully over time more and more people will be so fed up of their area being turned into crime hotspots that they’ll vote for councillors prepared to do something about it. Alternatively the government will ensure any appeal is heard by one of the numerous Judas judges who are determined to play their part in destroying the UK. If this happens the appeal will succeed and every council will have to accept however many migrants the government decides to dump on them. Sadly my… Read more »
How long before our rulers put massive taxes on homes worth over £500,000 but you get a tax reduction if you agree to put up a Third-Worlder in your spare bedroom?
Judges will do the government’s bidding and close down the gimmigrant hotels. The government will then claim they are doing what they promised.
This is bad news as they’ll be distributed around the country to cause havoc.
Dear Daily Mail, these people are NOT ASYLUM SEEKERS.
Get this through your skulls.
Why do otherwise sensible people persist in this ridiculously inaccurate description of illegal economic migrants?
Anyone know how many refugees are being given sanctuary in safe and wealthy Arab lands?
“… the move “runs the risk of acting as an impetus for further violent protests”.
Why, when peaceful protest and legal due process achieved the desired result? Poor dear – can’t blame it on “Far Right thugs”… but lives in hope.
”It would also “substantially interfere” with the Home Office’s legal duty to avoiding a breach of the asylum seekers’ human rights, he said. …”
So-called asylum seekers have no “Right” to be accommodated in luxury surroundings, and they are not “asylum seekers” until a tribunal has established that, and none of them are seeking asylum from France … so they are not “asylum seekers” at all.
The Government has a statutory duty to avoid breaching the Rights of its citizens, to ensure their safety and security, and spend tax revenue only on the things for which it is raised.
Arise Lord Justice Eyre.