Epping councillor condemns 'absolutely unacceptable' violence at migrant hotel protest

It's pretty disturbing to see what happened last night

I mean, I'm the local councillor, I've lived in Epping my whole life, so it really isn't something that you expect to see

As a council, we've absolutely condemned the hotel and called on the government to close it immediately

and we have done that since it reopened. The government have ignored those calls repeatedly

But obviously, whilst peaceful protest is legitimate, it's just not good enough to see scenes like this

in the streets of Epping. And how did it, Holly, how did it descend into violence and unrest? Because we're told that initially it was peaceful, people legitimately protesting because of this alleged incident by a migrant who was staying at the hell and had crossed into this country illegally or by irregular means. So how did it descend into violence in your mind

So I think there were local people who were legitimately and peacefully protesting, but I think there were also people

both on the left and the right who were there as professional protesters

and who were there to cause trouble. So it diluted what was a message you know a legitimate message of concern with people causing trouble and being violent which is obviously absolutely unacceptable I mean it does seem like it a very hard thing to manage

to police, when there is this amount of anger in local communities. We do sort of see these events taking place more and more often

I mean, what can be done to make sure, yes, that people can have their voices heard, of course

but that also the police and our police can maintain order and, frankly, maintain their own safety too

Yeah, I mean, I'd like to thank Essex Police and I believe the Met Police were involved as well last night

so thanks for their actions in what was incredibly difficult and unexpected, quite frankly, in the area that we live in

And while it's absolutely right that people can protest, you know, it's also right that they do so peacefully

and when necessary, and we've seen the arrests have been made today, those actions are taken

I mean, what is really clear to me and the message as a council that we keep giving to the government

is this hotel needs to close now. We can't let this. It's a boiling point

We saw this incident last night and this cannot be allowed to continue