Asylum seekers are set to be removed from an Essex hotel after a council was granted a temporary High Court injunction blocking them from being housed there.

Epping Forest District Council had asked a judge to issue an interim injunction stopping migrants from being accommodated at the Bell Hotel in Epping.

The injunction sought by the council meant the hotel’s owner, Somani Hotels Limited, would have had to stop housing asylum seekers there within 14 days.

The hotel has been at the centre of a series of protests in recent weeks after an asylum seeker who was staying there was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

In a ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Eyre granted the temporary injunction, but extended the time limit by which the hotel must stop housing asylum seekers to September 12.

He also refused to give Somani Hotels the green light to challenge his ruling, but the company could still ask the Court of Appeal for the go-ahead to appeal against the judgment.

In his judgment, he said that while the council had not “definitively established” that Somani Hotels had breached planning rules, “the strength of the claimant’s case is such that it weighs in favour” of granting the injunction.

He continued that the “risk of injustice is greater” if a temporary injunction was not granted.

A further hearing on whether the injunction should be made permanent is expected to be held at a later date, and is expected to last two days.