Asylum seekers can use hotel, court rules

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.

- 

The Bell Hotel in Essex

(JORDAN PETTITT/PA)

The council took legal action against the hotel owner, Somani Hotels, claiming that accommodating asylum seekers there breaches planning rules.

Lawyers for Epping Forest District Council (EFDC) said the housing of asylum seekers is a 'material change of use' and has caused 'increasingly regular protests.' The Home Office intervened in the case, telling the court the council's bid was 'misconceived.