Overview
- Mr Justice Mould dismissed Epping Forest District Council’s application for a permanent injunction, allowing asylum seekers to continue living at the Bell Hotel in Essex.
- He ruled the current use requires planning permission but found the breach was not flagrant and that an injunction was neither just nor proportionate.
- The judgment emphasized the continuing need for contingency hotel accommodation to meet legal duties to house asylum seekers, with public order issues to be managed by police powers.
- The court said there was no evidential basis to claim asylum seekers as a group are more prone to criminal or anti‑social behavior than the settled population.
- A prior temporary injunction obtained by the council was overturned by the Court of Appeal in August, and the Home Office intervened in the latest case warning of system‑wide capacity impacts.