The Bell Hotel in Epping has hardly been out of the news since the summer. In July, Bell resident Hadush Kebatu’s sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl sparked weeks of protests. And if Epping was forgotten for a short time after he was jailed, it swept back to the headlines when Kebatu was released in error from HMP Chelmsford, and spent days wandering about London. Over these past few months Epping District Council has been fighting a legal battle to force the Home Office to house these illegal migrants elsewhere. Its a goal shared by the majority of Epping’s councillors and voters.

Everyone knows we can’t go on admitting over 110,000 asylum seekers a year , with close to 38,000 arriving this year via small boats, in almost every case with no proof of their real identities.

The battle

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