Epping Forest District Council has applied for an interim High Court injunction in a bid to stop asylum seekers being housed at the Bell Hotel in the town.
Documents were lodged with the High Court in London on Tuesday, the council said in a statement, just weeks after it urged the government to stop using the establishment.
It comes after a series of protests in recent weeks outside the hotel, after an asylum seeker was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Councillor Chris Whitbread, Leader of Epping Forest District Council, said: “The current situation cannot go on. If the Bell Hotel was a nightclub we could have closed it down long ago.
“So far as the council is aware, there is no criminal record checking of individuals who might only have been in the country a matter of days before being housed at the hotel.
“There are five schools and a residential care home within the vicinity of the hotel. The use by the Home Office of the premises for asylum seekers poses a clear risk of further escalating community tensions already at a high, and the risk of irreparable harm to the local community.
“This will only increase with the start of the new school year. We are frustrated that the Home Office continues not to listen.
“In our view placing asylum seekers in the Bell Hotel is a clear breach of planning permission. It is not in use as a hotel, and it doesn’t function as a hotel.
“The establishment of a centre to accommodate asylum seekers in this particular location, in close proximity to five schools, a residential care home, and the shops and amenities of the market town of Epping is not appropriate in planning terms.”
The council said it is taking legal action following unprecedented levels of protest and disruption and a series of arrests connected to the hotel.
Extra police officers have been drafted in from other forces as a result after Essex Police were placed under severe pressure, the council added.
Councillors voted unanimously at a recent meeting to call on the Home Office to immediately close the hotel.
In the message read to the meeting by Councillor Shane Yerrell, he added: “I do not want or condone any of the violence that has taken place at the protests – that’s not what we’re about, and that’s not what we’re trying to achieve – it’s only going to make things go the other way.
“I just want the hotel to be moved, not only off our streets, but away from making any other family feel how we are feeling right now.”
In a letter to Yvette Cooper, the Essex Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner said the hotel is unsuitable for housing migrants and is “clearly creating community tension”.
