HOUSING asylum-seekers at a hotel targeted by far-right protests is a breach of planning rules, a council told the High Court today, as anti-racism campaigners warned judges against setting a “very dangerous precedent.”

The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, has been subjected to weeks of protests after an asylum-seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

Epping Forest District Council claimed that there was an “overwhelming case” for a temporary injunction to prevent the “very serious problem” at the hotel which “could not be much worse.”

Philip Coppel KC, for the Tory-run council, said: “The problem has arisen because of a breach of planning control by the defendant” Somani Hotels.

He said that accommodating migrants meant the hotel was not being used for its intended purpose and Somani Hotels had not had “the courage of conviction to seek a certificate of lawful use.”

Somani Hotels’ barristers argued that an injunction would cause asylum-seekers “hardship” and set “a dangerous precedent that protests justify planning injunctions.”

Piers Riley-Smith, for Somani Hotels, added that “having taken advice from the Home Office,” a planning application had not been made before the first asylum-seekers were placed in the hotel in April. 

The Home Office’s contracted service provider, Corporate Travel Management (North) Limited (CTM), should be involved in the case, he said.

Mr Riley-Smith also warned that protesters’ concerns over the hotel’s use “have spread far beyond locals who might have a genuine concern about their area to a wider group with more strategic national and ideological aims, but that does not necessarily mean the concerns are well-founded.

“Fears as to an increase of crime associated with asylum-seekers or a danger to schools are common, but that does not make them well-founded.”

The hearing before Mr Justice Eyre was due to conclude yesterday.

Stand up to Racism co-convener Sabby Dhalu said: “Moving the refugees from the Bell Hotel in Epping in response to racist far right protests — often violent and led by fascists — would set a very dangerous precedent indeed. 

“There are similar protests up and down the country and the message this sends is that far-right racists can get what they want through violent means.

“Racists and fascists need to be stood up to not conceded to.”