Anti-immigration protests in Epping have cost police more than £1.5million with no end to the demonstrations in sight.
The Bell Hotel, which homes around 150 asylum seekers, has become the focal point of a series of intense protests and counter-protests since mid-July.
Thousands have attended the marches in the Essex town, sparked after an asylum seeker living in the hotel was charged and later convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage girl.
There continue to be weekly demonstrations, and ahead of the scheduled 23rd protest, there was an acknowledgement of ‘protest fatigue’ among the policing team.
The cost of policing the protests has surpassed £1.6m, a crime panel meeting was told, with no sign of the protests slowing down.
Roger Hirst, the police, fire and crime commissioner for Essex, told the BBC the force would only receive government help if costs hit £4m.
He added the force’s response had required a ‘substantial level’ of resources.
‘It’s a classic public service conundrum,’ he said.
‘You have the requirement right now, you have to do it. That’s the job.’
The Bell Hotel in the Essex town, which homes around 150 asylum seekers, has become the focal point of a series intense protests and counter-protests since mid-July
Thousands have attended the marches, sparked after an asylum seeker living in the hotel being charged and later convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. Pictured: Police seen gathered outside The Bell Hotel in Epping
Essex’s Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Hooper has also spoken out this week of the ugly confrontations his officers are regularly receiving while one duty.
Ahead of last Sunday’s protest one senior officer revealed he had ‘personally’ been told by protesters that’ they hope my children get raped because I’m here protecting the Bell Hotel’.
Anti-migrant protesters have also accused police placing unfair restrictions on their freedom of speech as well as ‘bussing in’ counter-demonstrators.
Chief constable Hooper told ITV News: ‘We’re here to police without fear or favour and to make sure that people can go about their democratic right…to peacefully protest.
‘And it’s that fine line that we’re trying to kind of balance on a daily basis and make sure that we can protect everyone in our communities.’
The disorder has led to police officers being drafted in from across the UK in a bid to contain the mayhem – which later spread to other parts of the country amid growing calls for asylum hotels to be outlawed.
At the end of August, three men were arrested after police officers were injured during a protest outside the hotel that month.
The series of protests was sparked by Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu, 41, who he tried to kiss a schoolgirl before groping a woman who came to her aid.
Kebatu was jailed for 12 months after with a judge describing his behaviour as ‘disgusting and sickening’ and highlighting the ‘poor regard [he] must have for women’.
Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu (pictured) who tried to kiss a schoolgirl before groping a woman who came to her aid was jailed for 12 months
Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court heard he acted ‘ignorantly and repulsively’ when he sexually assaulted the schoolgirl and another woman just days after arriving in the country on a small boat.
Under current law, foreign offenders who receive a prison sentence of 12 months or more can be deported automatically.
Deportations only occur for sentences under a year in certain cases, for example if it involves a persistent offender or they have caused serious harm.
Last month, the government unveiled plans to immediately kick out rapists, drug dealers and burglars who receive custodial sentences, with a lifelong ban on returning.
But the most violent criminals – including murderers, foreign-born terrorists and other serving life – will still need to finish their sentences before being ejected.
Kebatu, who was helped by an interpreter in court, showed no reaction as District Judge Christopher Williams delivered the verdicts on September 4.
The clashes came as the Government won a court challenge which means asylum seekers can continue to be housed at the Essex hotel.
The Court of Appeal overturned a temporary High Court injunction which would have forced the 138 asylum seekers there to leave by September 12.
Epping Forest District Council had argued site owner Somani Hotels had breached planning rules by not notifying Epping of its plans for the Bell.
However, the authority could still be granted a full injunction should it be successful at a three-day hearing starting on October 15 in London.
The decision to rule in favour of the hotel chain and Home Office sparked outrage, with protests spreading to cities across the UK amid accusations the government was ‘taking the side of migrants over Britons‘.
Epping Forest District Council announced it would take its case to shut down the Bell Hotel to the Supreme Court. Pictured: Protesters outside London’s High Court last month
Protestors march along the streets near the hotel raising red smoke flares aloft as others held signs
Several other councils across the UK have since vowed to take legal action to kick asylum seekers out of hotels following the ruling.
Labour-run councils, such as Wirral, Stevenage, Tamworth and Rushmoor are among those continuing to storm ahead with plans to launch legal bids against the government.
It comes as today hundreds of of anti-immigration protestors on a march have clashed with counter demonstrators in Newcastle.
Three people have been arrested for breach of peace during the immigration protests in Newcastle city centre. Northumbria Police has confirmed that t have been brought into custody.
UKIP leader Nick Tenconi was at the front of the 500-strong parade, from the Newgate Hotel, which houses asylum seekers, to the quayside.
The protestors held a purple banner declaring: ‘Mass deportations now.’
In a speech, Mr Tenconi said: ‘The Unite the Kingdom protest is a great initiative by Tommy Robinson and I obviously I support patriotic movements, but patriotic movements aren’t going to take back the country.
‘The country is taken back by a political party returning a majority and our system which is a first past the post system. That’s how Boris did it in 19, it’s how Labour did it last year.
‘You must return a majority of candidates. So, movements, pressure groups, lobby groups think tanks, leaning on the government, I am all for that, but we are taking our country back.’
The protests has seen three people, two women and one man, all in their 20s, arrested for breach of peace during the protests.
Earlier this week the Crowne Plaza hotel, which is owned by Newcastle City Council, cancelled the launch of a new political party, Advance UK, which is backed by Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk.
Instead, the conference is taking place at Aveika, a restaurant and nightclub on the quayside.
At the end of June there were just over 32,000 aslyum seekers in taxpayer-funded hotels, up eight per cent in a year.
The Home Office has also said an all-time high of 111,084 asylum applications were lodged in the year to June, up 14 per cent on the previous 12 months.
Despite increasing numbers, Labour has said it will close all migrant hotels by 2029.
In August Epping Forest District Council won a temporary High Court injunction to stop migrants being placed at The Bell hotel, in Epping.
But the Home Office successfully challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, and the hotel remains open pending any further legal action.
The amount of taxpayer’s money spent on asylum support fell to £4.76billion in 2024-25, down from £5.38billion the previous year.
But costs are massively higher than a decade ago, when the figure stood at less than £475million a year.
