The Bell Hotel in Epping is an 80-bedroom coaching inn located about 20 miles from Westminster. Since April it has housed up to 138 male asylum-seekers on behalf of the Home Office. Epping Forest District Council argues that using the premises in this way amounts to a material change of use and that planning permission is required to operate as a hostel. The hotel's owners, following Home Office advice, dispute that position. A court will need to determine the legal status by weighing the fine line between a hotel and a hostel and applying the 'balance of convenience'. The situation underscores local political tension and uncertainty for migrants' accommodation.
THE BELL HOTEL in Epping is a drab 80-bedroom coaching inn 20 miles as the crow files from Westminster. Since April it has housed up to 138 male asylum-seekers on behalf of the Home Office. Epping Forest District Council, which is controlled by the Conservative Party, contends that doing so constitutes a "material change of use" and the hotel's owner should seek planning permission to convert it to a hostel.
The owners of the hotel, on the advice of the Home Office, disagree. As there is a fine line between a hotel and a hostel it is for a court to decide, in the legalese, the "balance of convenience".
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