Epping Council votes to continue appeal process over Bell Hotel

Politics / Wed 26th Nov 2025 at 08:23am

HAVING heard all the arguments, Epping Forest District Council has voted to proceed to the next stage of the appeals process following a full council debate.

The council will continue to take legal advice at each stage of the appeals process and remains committed to the closure of the Bell Hotel.

5 Comments for Epping Council votes to continue appeal process over Bell Hotel:

David Forman

2025-11-26 11:37:50

Justice Mould on November 11 in the High Court delivered a damning verdict on the repeated failures of Epping Forest District Council to enforce planning law. In particular their Legal Services Manager was at fault for not documenting the rationale for seeking an injunction. The council's own rules, the Scheme of Delegation, required delegated decisions to be thoroughly documented. This was not done when on August 5 the decision to proceed to an injunction was made. Refer to paragraphs 199 and 284 of the judgement at https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Epping-Forest-DC-v-Somani-Hotels.pdf

David Forman

2025-11-26 11:56:56

How have Epping's Conservative councillors ignored the legal judgement saying the current contract with the Bell Hotel ends in March next year? Paragraph 14 of the judgement says: "By a contract dated 24 March 2025, for an initial term of 12 months ending on 24 March 2026, the Defendant has agreed to provide CTM with exclusive use of the Bell for that contractual period for the purpose of short-term accommodation for asylum seekers." Perhaps seeking an agreement with the Home Office that they will not renew the contract would be more advantageous and cheaper for the council tax payers of Epping Forest?

Brian

2025-11-26 16:20:45

Close the place down and get the Royal navy to ship all illegal immigrants back to France which is a safe country.End this farce started by the tories and continued by the current crop of clowns.

Liam Devlin

2025-11-26 22:53:10

seeing that the protests outside of the hotel (along with the flag nonsense) have upset people in both Harlow and epping I think the place should be closed, not for the sake of the fascist mobs who believe that hardworking migrants are sex addicted rapists but for the regular people who live in the area and have grown tired of all of the disorder that has been going on unabated since the beginning of July!. seeing that I have to counselling because of the flags and the fact that I deliberately avoid driving through Epping on the way home from Waltham abbey I think this has got to stop now! not in three months, not in six months now before people starting associating this lovely peaceful town with riots, racism, violence and flags that make the place feel like you're in the shankill road during the troubles!.