Epping is crisis boiling over before our eyes - Yvette Cooper must act

We have seen deeply troubling events in Epping in recent days and weeks. Epping is a wonderful small town with a warm, caring and compassionate community that I feel blessed to be a part of. It has changed a little bit over the years. As a young veterinary student, I did my dairy farm work experience at a busy cattle farm on the edge of my home town of Epping, just a few hundred yards from the Bell Hotel, which used to be a hotel where families could come and stay and enjoy our wonderful town.

But people are now scared, unsettled and feel like their lives have been turned upside down. We are all deeply disturbed by the alleged sexual assaults in Epping two weeks ago and my thoughts remain with the victims, their families, and their peers. And then the scenes we saw last Thursday and Sunday nights were deeply troubling and unsettling, and the violence completely unacceptable.

Police put themselves in harm's way to keep us safe. People have the right to peaceful protest, but these violent scenes are not us, they are not Epping, and they are not what we stand for.

It is deeply disturbing that people from outside the community are coming to these protests not to support the real concerns of our local community, but to disrupt and cause violence.

I want to thankEssex Police for all that they are doing in these distressing times for our town. And to the neighbouring forces who have supported Essex Police with these major protests.

I continue to liaise closely with both the police and the Home Office regarding this situation and I have also in recent days been out on patrol with Essex Police to the Bell Hotel area and been talking to residents in the area about their concerns. I am hugely grateful that the police are continuing to increase their local presence in the vicinity, to reassure our local community.

I and my neighbouring Essex MP for Brentwood and Ongar, Alex Burghart, have jointly requested an urgent meeting with Home Secretary Yvette Cooper to discuss our calls for immediate closure of both the Bell Hotel in Epping and the nearby Phoenix Hotel.

As local MPs, we are in lockstep with Epping Forest District Council, who are also calling for the immediate closure of the hotels and who have initiated a petition that has, so far, secured more than 8,800 signatures.

The Government needs to get a grip of this issue - both locally and nationally.

As I have said repeatedly, it was wrong for the Bell Hotel to be opened up for asylum use again this year. It was hugely upsetting that the Labour Government reversed the decision of the previous government who managed to end the use of this hotel for asylum seekers in April last year.

Sadly, Labour opened the hotel against all advice and without any local consultation. They have made promises that they would end the use of asylum hotels. They have also made promises on illegal immigration, but on their watch both have markedly risen, arrivals and the use of hotels - seven more of which have been commandeered nationally at huge public cost to house them.

As a result of all this, life has changed for folk here in Epping in recent days. Now we have the protests, we have had churches cancelling services, businesses closing early, and local residents feeling like they are barricaded in their own homes.

The hotel is in the wrong place. It is near a school, and there is inadequate safeguarding of its vulnerable residents.

This is a crisis that is boiling over and, for the safety of our community, the Government must get a grip of this situation now - they must listen and act quickly to close the hotel. I continue to call on ministers to immediately close the Bell Hotel, as I made clear during an Urgent Question in the House of Commons earlier this week.

I know church groups and many local residents have provided crucial support for vulnerable people in the asylum system here, and that they continue to do so. I want to thank them. And I continue to urge all our wonderful Epping community to stick together and remain calm and to follow the information and advice on this issue and situation given by Essex Police.

We just want our town to go back to how it used to be, and we can get on with our lives, safely and in peace.

Dr Neil Hudson is Conservative MP for Epping Forest