A council has unanimously voted to urge the Government to close a hotel housing asylum seekers following a series of protests around the site in Essex. Multiple demonstrations have been held outside the Bell Hotel in Epping since July 13 after an asylum seeker was charged with allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl.

The Metropolitan Police has erected a steel ring outside the Britannia Hotel in east London. The hotel is set to host asylum seekers, according to the local council, and now the police have put up metal barriers to prevent anyone unauthorised from entering.

The father of a young girl who was allegedly targeted by an Ethiopian asylum seeker in Epping blamed the government for putting “children and grandchildren at risk” as a heavy police presence gathered in the town,

Designated protest areas are directly opposite the Bell Hotel ‘and will have their own designated entry and exit routes’, the assistant chief constable added. There will also be sites near the Civic Centre, and he said ‘if you move from the Bell Hotel to the Civic Centre, you will not be able to return’.

COPS have admitted escorting pro-migrant protesters to an asylum hotel before violence erupted. Essex Police had initially denied it brought demonstrators from Stand Up to Racism to the Bell Hotel

An Epping councillor has said tensions are reaching “boiling point” in the community amid ongoing anti-migrant protests over a hotel housing asylum seekers in the Essex town.

Epping Forest District Council leader Chris Whitbread described the Essex town as a ‘powder keg’ after violent demonstrations outside the Bell Hotel on Sunday

Essex Police have denied claims officers “bussed” counter-demonstrators to a protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Epping last week. The claims have promoted a call from Reform UK leader and Clacton MP Nigel Farage for the force’s chief constable to resign.