Category Archives: Essex

Asylum seekers to remain at Epping hotel after court of appeal revokes ban

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Judges say decision to allow injunction was ‘seriously flawed’ and contained several ‘errors in principle’

More than 130 people seeking asylum will be allowed to remain in the Bell hotel in Epping after the court of appeal overturned a high court ban on housing them there, leaving police braced for further angry protests.

While the decision was a technical victory for the Home Office, as other local councils could have brought legal challenges against the use of hotels, it has already been seized on by Labour’s political opponents.

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Labour condemns Robert Jenrick’s visit to rally attended by far-right activist

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Shadow minister posts picture of himself at protest outside Essex hotel that has become anti-immigration flashpoint

Robert Jenrick has been severely criticised by Labour after the shadow justice secretary was pictured at an anti-asylum rally in Essex attended by a veteran far-right activist.

Jenrick posted photos on X showing himself visiting the protest outside the Bell hotel in Epping, where police have been attacked and police vehicles vandalised by groups of men taking part in the demonstration. The MP met protesters including a woman with a T-shirt bearing the message: “Send them home.”

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Number of asylum seekers at ex-RAF base in Essex to rise by more than 50%

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Home Office to move 445 more people to MDP Wethersfield site, scene of previous anti-migrant protests

The Home Office is increasing the number of asylum seekers accommodated at a controversial military base by more than 50%.

There are about 800 asylum seekers housed at the remote former RAF base MDP Wethersfield in Essex and the Home Office is moving in 445 more.

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‘Serious incident’ at Southend airport after small plane crashes

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Emergency services at the scene after Beechcraft B200 aircraft involved in collision at about 4pm on Sunday

A small passenger plane has crashed after taking off in Essex.

The Beechcraft B200 aircraft crashed at about 4pm on Sunday, soon after taking off from Southend airport, and was seen in flames with dark smoke billowing from it, according to photos circulating on social media.

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‘It feels like we never left’: resentment builds in one of UK’s firmest Brexit-backing areas

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Keir Starmer says Britons have moved on but many in Thurrock think they were lied to in debate about leaving EU

When Keir Starmer was asked last week whether he thought Britons had finally moved on from the issue of Brexit, his answer was a definitive yes.

It’s not difficult to see why the prime minister would hope to settle the question, before a week in which he hopes to reset the UK’s relationship with the EU, clearing a way for easier access to a marketplace that could help increase the economic growth he badly needs.

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Essex couple’s £1,500 fine for reporting Channel stowaway is cancelled

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Adrian and Joanne Fenton hit with penalty after calling police when they found a boy hiding inside bike-rack cover

A couple who were fined £1,500 after reporting a boy who had stowed away on the back of their motorhome for their journey from France to Essex have had the penalty cancelled.

Adrian and Joanne Fenton from Heybridge were fined by the Home Office for “failing to check that no clandestine entrant was concealed” when they returned to their home across the Channel.

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Essex police officer sacked after admitting ‘tragedy chanting’ at Anfield

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Misconduct hearing found Tyler Coppin had breached standards of professional behaviour over offence

An Essex police officer has been sacked after admitting “tragedy chanting” at Liverpool fans during a Premier League match last year.

Essex police instigated misconduct proceedings against Sgt Tyler Coppin after he pleaded guilty to the public order offence during the Liverpool game against Chelsea at Anfield last October.

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Campaigners hail ‘important victory’ in protection of England’s national parks

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Minister says there was error when Manningtree station car park extension was approved under last government

Campaigners have celebrated an “important victory” in a closely watched case that will determine whether the government will enforce new legislation aimed at protecting national parks and landscapes in England.

Dedham Vale is a designated “national landscape” on the border of Essex and Suffolk, home to increasingly rare species including hazel dormice and hedgehogs. Within it is Manningtree station, where the train operator Greater Anglia built an extension to the car park to cope with increased traffic.

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Calls for Home Office to protect asylum seekers after accommodation violence

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Exclusive: NGOs say safeguarding policies need improving, as victims tell of multiple assaults and incidents of race hate

NGOs are calling for improvements in UK government safeguarding policies after multiple acts of violence and race hate incidents in Home Office accommodation.

The incidents include 20 assaults of asylum seekers in one small area of Essex and a separate incident where another was attacked and threatened with a knife by a man recently released into shared asylum accommodation from prison on licence. Slices of bacon were also laid over food belonging to Muslim residents stored in a communal kitchen fridge.

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Cockney influences found in Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, says expert

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Linguistics professor says London dialect is most likely to be spoken in Essex, but aspects have traversed the globe

The cockney dialect, as associated with the late EastEnders icon Dame Barbara Windsor, may not be as prevalent in today’s London, but it remains possibly the most influential English dialect across the world, according to academic research.

No longer the preserve of those born within earshot of the Bow Bells in the City of London, today cockney is more likely to be spoken in Essex.

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Essex police drop Allison Pearson case after CPS advice

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Police were advised there was no chance of conviction against journalist after hate crime investigation, Guardian understands

Essex police have dropped their hate crime investigation into Allison Pearson, the Daily Telegraph columnist visited by police after she wrongly accused people of colour of being antisemitic.

The decision followed advice from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) that there was no reasonable chance of a conviction, the Guardian understands.

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Woman jailed for life after murdering parents and living with bodies in Essex

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Virginia McCullough, 36, kept bodies of her father and mother in house for four years after their deaths

A woman who murdered her parents and lived with their bodies for four years has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 36 years.

Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father, John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication that she crushed and put into his alcoholic drinks, the prosecutor Lisa Wilding KC told Chelmsford crown court. She then murdered her mother, Lois McCullough, 71, the following day.

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Burglar awarded £5m after being stabbed in Chelmsford prison kitchen

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Steven Wilson was attacked after risk assessment failed to stop convicted murderer working in kitchen with access to knives

A career burglar has been awarded more than £5m in damages by a high court judge due to “life-changing” injuries he sustained after being stabbed in prison.

Steven Wilson, 36, sued the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) after a convicted murderer stabbed him multiple times with a 9-in knife in July 2018 while working in the canteen at HMP Chelmsford.

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‘He could be here more’: Clacton split over Nigel Farage’s first months as MP

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Many remain positive about their high-profile politician but others complain that he ‘got his seat and disappeared’

It happened sometime on Monday morning, locals think, though no one seems to know exactly when. But as staff in the shops on Old Road in Clacton stepped out of work for lunch, they spotted that the billboard on the corner of Crossfield Road had been ripped to ribbons.

Plenty had approved of the poster, placed there by the political campaign group Led By Donkeys, drawing attention to the huge scale of the local MP Nigel Farage’s earnings outside politics. A photo of the billboard posted on X by the group has 24,000 likes.

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‘Really special’: Farm near London to be rewilded to enable new housing in Essex

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Farm north of London to be returned to something like pasture once enjoyed by Anglo-Saxon king

It was once woodland where Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king, rode in pursuit of deer. Over recent decades, the hillside with a panoramic view of London has become arable fields, pony paddocks and a Christmas tree plantation.

But now Harold’s Park, a 200-hectare (500 acre) farm just north of the M25 on the edge of the capital, is to be rewilded and returned to something like the tangled wood pasture once enjoyed by King Harold.

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Nigel Farage ‘has questions to answer’ over Reform racism, says Rishi Sunak

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Essex police say they are ‘urgently assessing’ racist and homophobic remarks made by party’s volunteers

Rishi Sunak has said he was hurt and angry to hear a Reform UK canvasser calling him a racial slur, saying Nigel Farage “has some questions to answer”.

The prime minister responded after a Channel 4 undercover investigation found a Reform campaigner had called him a “fucking [P-word]”. Sunak repeated the slur and said he had done so because it was important to call it out for what it was.

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Labour ‘not putting up a fight’ against Farage in Clacton

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Labour officials said to be upset that Jovan Owusu-Nepaul was gaining traction for viral social media posts

Labour has been accused of “not putting up a fight” against Nigel Farage in Clacton after the party’s candidate was instructed to leave the constituency after “distracting” from Keir Starmer’s campaign.

Jovan Owusu-Nepaul, 27, who works for Labour’s equalities team, was installed by the party last month to contest the seat, weeks before Farage changed his mind and decided to stand in the Essex constituency.

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Man arrested after death of Gogglebox’s George Gilbey released

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Police continue investigation after Gilbey reportedly died in a workplace accident in Southend-on-Sea

A man arrested in connection with the death of the Gogglebox star George Gilbey has been released under investigation by police.

The man, who is in his 40s and from Witham in Essex, was arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter after Gilbey reportedly died after an accident at work on Wednesday.

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