{"id":36320,"date":"2025-08-31T23:27:52","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/three-arrests-as-bell-hotel-protesters-clash-with-police\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T23:27:52","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T23:27:52","slug":"three-arrests-as-bell-hotel-protesters-clash-with-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/three-arrests-as-bell-hotel-protesters-clash-with-police\/","title":{"rendered":"Three arrests as Bell Hotel protesters clash with police"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Daniel Sandford<\/span>UK correspondent<\/span><\/p>\n

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Watch: Flares and ‘Jerusalem’ bellows out of speakers in Epping<\/figcaption><\/p>\n
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Three people have been arrested during a protest against the housing of asylum seekers at a hotel in Essex.<\/p>\n

An organised march was held in Epping, where about 140 migrants are staying at The Bell Hotel.<\/p>\n

Essex Police had a dispersal order in place and set restrictions on the protest, saying it must be finished by 20:00 and banners must not contain “offensive or inflammatory language”.<\/p>\n

The force said one man was arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred while another man and a woman were arrested for breaching orders in place for the protest.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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About 200 people gathered outside the Epping Forest District Council building where a woman climbed the steps and unfurled a Union flag before being detained by officers after refusing to leave.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Essex Police said her arrest was “categorically not for flying a Union Flag”, but because the Civic Centre was not an area where protesters were allowed.<\/p>\n

One man was arrested when he refused to leave the area after the protest had concluded, breaching a section 14 order. The man who was arrested on suspicion of inciting racial hatred was detained “after an emblem was reported to have been set alight” during a protest on Friday, police said.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the evening, protesters stood behind metal barriers across the road from the Bell Hotel, waving at passing cars that sounded their horns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Protesters were told they could not cover their face or carry offensive signs<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The hotel became the focal point of several demonstrations and counter-protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker housed there was charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl last month. He has denied the charges.<\/p>\n

The case is currently going through the courts.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the Court of Appeal overturned a temporary injunction<\/a> that would have blocked asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Assistant chief constable Stuart Hooper said: “We’ve consistently said that we will always seek to facilitate lawful protest but that does not include a right to commit crime, and we’ll take a firm approach to anyone intent on doing that.<\/p>\n

“And to reiterate to the public, the strength of feeling in Epping is not lost on me \u2013 or anyone in Essex Police \u2013 and I would urge anyone who wants to make their voices heard to please do that peacefully and within the parameters outlined,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Police have urged protests to remain peaceful <\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The unrest came as a number of anti-asylum protests and counter-protests took place across England on Sunday, including in London, Gloucester and Norwich.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Daniel SandfordUK correspondent Watch: Flares and ‘Jerusalem’ bellows out of speakers in Epping Three people have been arrested during a protest against the housing of asylum seekers at a hotel in Essex. An organised march was held in Epping, where about 140 migrants are staying at The Bell Hotel. Essex Police had a dispersal order […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36321,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[2865,7372,7054,2067,599,1444],"class_list":["post-36320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-england","tag-arrests","tag-bell","tag-clash","tag-hotel","tag-police","tag-protesters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36320"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36322,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36320\/revisions\/36322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.godj.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}