Essex Police commissioner backs High Court decision over Bell Hotel
Crime / Wed 20th Aug 2025 at 02:41pm
ROGER Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, welcomed the High Court decision to temporarily block asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping, crediting Chris Whitbread, Leader of Epping Forest District Council and Holly Whitbread, Cabinet Member for Finance & Economic Development, Epping Forest District Council, for bringing this injunction before the court.
Roger Hirst said, “I wrote to the Home Office on Tuesday 22nd July asking for action on the protests in Epping, specifically requesting a meeting to review the use of hotels in the Epping Forest district of Essex, and elsewhere in the county, to accommodate newly arrived asylum seekers.
“A second letter, jointly signed by myself, Dr Neil Hudson, MP for Epping Forest, Alex Burghart, MP for Brentwood and Ongar, Cllr Chris Whitbread, Leader, Epping Forest District Council and Cllr Kevin Bentley, Leader, Essex County Council, was sent to the Home Office on Wednesday 30th July restating our collective concern about the use of the Bell Hotel for asylum seeker accommodation.
“These letters stated that the sites in Epping Forest district were entirely unsuitable to house asylum seekers and were placing an unsustainable strain on police resources, creating significant community tension, and leading to public disorder that was unacceptable to our residents and deeply concerning for the safety of all involved.
“Support for the Home Office’s wider objective of reducing reliance on hotels was expressed in the letters and all signatories urged the Home Office to accelerate this process and make the Bell Hotel in Epping a priority for urgent closure.”
David Forman
2025-08-21 08:09:26
It's shocking that local Tory politicians are taking credit, yet past Tory governments created the problem. In fact, both the Institute for Government and the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration reported in February 2023 and July 2021 respectively that Home Office ministers and officials abandoned a customer service standard in January 2019 to deal with 98% of the easiest asylum cases in 6 months. The Institute for Government highlighted four key failures contributing to a backlog, which despite eventually increasing case handlers actually led to reduced productivity by a similar rate.. This then required use of hotels. You can read for yourself at https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainer/asylum-backlog#footnoteref64_u0c36xr
David Forman
2025-08-21 08:18:23
To get the full picture, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration said in their July 2021 report in the Foreword: "The length of time asylum claimants wait for an initial decision has increased year-on-year since 2011. Claimants who received a decision in 2020 were waiting an average of 449 days, and this rose to 550 days for unaccompanied asylum seeking children. In January 2019, with ministerial approval, the Home Office dropped its customer service standard (CSS) for asylum decisions (six months for 98% of straightforward claims). Both Home Office staff and stakeholders told inspectors that they had welcomed this change. At the time, the Home Office said it would prioritise claims involving individuals that were “high harm”, vulnerable, unaccompanied asylum seeking children, and or who are in receipt of asylum support, while it worked on implementing an improved service standard. This inspection found no evidence of any case type being prioritised, except for those who were in receipt of asylum support, who received their decisions more quickly in 2019 by an average of 40 days, and 1.5 days quicker in 2020. As at June 2021, there was no CSS for asylum decisions." See for yourself at https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6194e64f8fa8f50380e90241/An_inspection_of_asylum_casework_August_2020_to_May_2021.pdf
Michael beere
2025-08-21 09:24:51
No one should be taking credit for this shameful capitulation to the far right intimidation of asylum hotels. It will only encourage more bigotry to be on open display. Time for Labour to communicate clearly the country's need and support for immigration and ensure those who deserve asylum are processed as quickly as possible instead of remaining in limbo for far too long.
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