A ban on housing asylum seekers in an Essex hotel that has been the target of far-right protests has been overturned.
The court of appeal decided on Friday to revoke an interim injunction granted to Epping Forest district council after the authority claimed the Bell hotel had breached planning rules by housing asylum seekers.
Challenging the order, lawyers for the site’s owner, Somani Hotels, and the Home Office accused the council of trying to injunct the protests by going after the hotel.
A lawyer representing Epping Forest district council told the court of appeal on Thursday it had not previously moved against the hotel, despite believing for years it was in breach of planning law by housing asylum seekers, because the situation had been seen as “unproblematic”.
That changed around the time that protests began after an asylum seeker housed at the Bell hotel was charged with alleged sexual offences in July, the council’s lawyer Robin Green indicated. Reports have shown the protests to have been partly orchestrated by far-right extremists.
While the council had included the protests alongside planning issues among its concerns in seeking the original high court injunction, Thursday’s submission to the court of appeal was the clearest indication yet that the demonstrations were the principal catalyst for its urgent legal action.
Responding to the submission on Thursday, Edward Brown KC, representing the Home Office, told the judges: “Epping has effectively conceded before this court that this was, in truth, only ever about protest.” He said the interim injunction was “simply the wrong tool” for stopping asylum hotel demonstrations.
Delivering the judgment on Friday afternoon, Lord Justice Bean, sitting with Lady Justice Davies and Lord Justice Cobb, ruled that the earlier high court decision of Mr Justice Eyre should be overturned.