Councillor Ken Williamson, from Epping Forest District Council, delivers a statement after a temporary injunction that would have blocked asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, was overturned at the Court of Appeal
00:00The government can still listen. It needs to understand and take responsibility for the events that have taken place in Epping over the past six weeks, for the trauma and disruption brought upon our community.
00:15The battle is not over and we will continue the fight. It is nothing less than the people of Epping would expect and deserve.
00:23In a ruling last week, Mr Justice here granted Epping Forest District Council an interim injunction after the authority claimed that Somani Hotels, which owns and runs the Bell Hotel, had breached planning laws by using the Bell as accommodation for asylum seekers.
00:45Somani Hotels and the Home Office challenged that High Court ruling that would have stopped 138 asylum seekers from being housed there beyond the 12th of September.
01:01Now, after a separate hearing on Thursday, three courts of appeal judges ruled in favour of Somani Hotels and the Home Office on Friday, claiming that Mr Justice's ruling was seriously flawed in principle.
01:19The wider picture.
01:24The provision of accommodation for asylum seekers pursuant to the Home Secretary's statutory duty is a national issue requiring a structured response.
01:36Ad hoc interim injunction applications seeking closure of particular sites may each have some individual merit,
01:46but the judge's approach ignores the obvious consequence that closure of one site means that capacity needs to be identified elsewhere in the system
01:57and may incentivise local planning authorities who wish to remove asylum accommodation from their area
02:09to apply to the court urgently before capacity elsewhere in the system becomes exhausted.
02:17Therefore, we grant permission to appeal both to Somani and to the Home Secretary against the grant of the interim injunction.
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