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Asylum seekers can continue to be housed in the Bell Hotel in Essex after the local council lost a landmark legal battle at the High Court to block them from living there
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Epping Forest District Council has lost a High Court bid to block asylum seekers from living in the Bell Hotel in Essex.
The judge dismissed the claim that the hotel owner had flouted planning rules by housing illegal asylum immigrants there.
The ruling follows months of protests after a Bell resident was charged with sexual assault.
A judge previously awarded the council a temporary injunction in August, but this was later overturned at the Court of Appeal after the Home Office stepped in.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp branded the dismissal a "dark day for local democracy" and a "slap in the face to the people of Epping", adding: "A Labour government has once again used the courts to put the rights of illegal immigrants above the rights of British citizens."
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