A council has been successful in its bid to temporarily block asylum seekers from being housed at an Essex hotel.

Epping Forest District Council has been granted a temporary High Court injunction to block migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel in Epping after protests erupted at the site when an asylum seeker - who was housed at the hotel - was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

At a hearing on Friday, barristers for the council claimed Somani Hotels, which owns the building, breached planning rules as the site is not being used for its intended purpose as a hotel, and that the situation "could not be much worse". The council had argued it wanted the restrictions in place before the school summer holidays ended.

Barristers for the hotel company said t

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