Council complains about asylum hotel court costs

A council has complained of having to pay the home secretary's legal costs incurred from a High Court case about asylum-seeker accommodation.

Epping Forest District Council lost a legal battle in November after it sought to block migrants lodging at The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex.

Court documents showed the council paid Shabana Mahmood's £66,000 legal costs and it was also ordered to pay £95,000 to Somani Hotels Limited, the owner of The Bell Hotel, to cover part of its legal bill.

The authority raised its liability for the costs at a permission for an appeal hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, where it sought leave to challenge the High Court judge's decision at the Court of Appeal.

The hotel, in High Road, became a focal point for protests and counter-protests over the summer after an asylum seeker living there was arrested - and later convicted and deported - for sexual assaulting a teenage girl and a woman.

James Strachan KC, the home secretary's lawyer, told the Court of Appeal: "Epping [Forest District Council] could clearly expect to be potentially liable for costs."

Somani Hotels Limited argued in court papers that the council had "ample opportunity to object" to the costs, "but chose to remain silent".

The BBC reported in December the High Court legal action so far had cost the authority more than £277,000.

At the permission for an appeal hearing, the district council was seeking to challenge Mr Justice Mould's decision in November to not grant an injunction to stop asylum seekers being housed at The Bell Hotel.

Mould dismissed the council's bid for a permanent injunction, finding that the breach of planning rules was "far from being flagrant".

Philip Coppel KC, the authority's barrister, claimed "the judge failed to determine a necessary and central question – namely, whether the use of The Bell Hotel exclusively for the placement of asylum seekers constituted a breach of planning control".

Coppel told the court Mould, "repeatedly misunderstood evidence" and "got the date wrong" of when the council started legal proceedings against Somani.

The home secretary's barrister responded that the planning issues were looked at and Coppel had made an "incorrect attack on the judge".

Two senior judges will now consider the authority's case for an appeal.

Lord Justice Holgate said there had been "public concern across the country" about The Bell Hotel.

"In that context, it's all the more surprising that… there isn't an instance of a local planning authority taking enforcement action up and down the country," he added.

Coppel responded that one reason was because councils may face "many months before anything can be done about it".

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