A judge has temporarily blocked the Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, from being used to house lone male asylum seekers after Epping Forest District Council took legal action.

The ruling has emboldened Daniel Elmer, leader of South Norfolk Council (SNC), in his efforts to stop the Park Hotel in Diss from being used in this way.

The Park Hotel in Diss (Image: Newsquest)

SNC has said that while it is not yet considering taking similar legal action to Epping, it will seek to prevent single men being housed at the Park hotel by using planning enforcement.

It follows the Norfolk hotel becoming the focus of a series of fervent protests, after it emerged that the Home Office intended to move asylum seeker families out of the venue - to be replaced with lone men.

Daniel Elmer, leader of South Norfolk Council (Image: Norfolk County Council)

Mr Elmer, who leads the Conservative SNC, said: “The ruling of the High Court relating to Asylum hotels appears to support the approach the Council has already taken in issuing a planning Enforcement Notice on the owners of the Park Hotel in Diss.

“We have been clear from the start that we will support the families who have made Diss their home over the........

© Norwich Evening News