An Epping councillor has said tensions are reaching “boiling point” in the community amid ongoing anti-migrant protests over a hotel housing asylum seekers in the Essex town.

Designated protest areas are directly opposite the Bell Hotel ‘and will have their own designated entry and exit routes’, the assistant chief constable added. There will also be sites near the Civic Centre, and he said ‘if you move from the Bell Hotel to the Civic Centre, you will not be able to return’.

The Metropolitan Police has erected a steel ring outside the Britannia Hotel in east London. The hotel is set to host asylum seekers, according to the local council, and now the police have put up metal barriers to prevent anyone unauthorised from entering.

The head of the Police Federation, Tiff Lynch, said officers were likely to be taken away from neighbourhood duties

I don’t think anybody in London understands just how close we are to civil disobedience on a vast scale in this country,’ Mr Farage said

A council has unanimously voted to urge the Government to close a hotel housing asylum seekers following a series of protests around the site in Essex. Multiple demonstrations have been held outside the Bell Hotel in Epping since July 13 after an asylum seeker was charged with allegedly attempting to kiss a 14-year-old girl.

Tensions have escalated in the Essex commuter town of Epping as residents continue demonstrating against an asylum hotel that has housed migrants for several years. Local mother Lindsey Thompson emerged as a prominent voice during recent protests,

Farage has defended the protests, describing most of the protestors as “genuinely concerned families”. Yet among those attending were known figures from far-right groups, including UKIP, Homeland, Blood and Honour, British Democrats, and others.