Epping Forest District Council will find out on Tuesday whether it has been successful in a bid to temporarily block asylum seekers from being housed at The Bell Hotel.
The local authority is seeking an interim injunction stopping migrants from being accommodated at the hotel in Epping, Essex, which is owned by Somani Hotels Limited.
At a hearing on Friday, barristers for the council claimed Somani Hotels breached planning rules as the site is not being used for its intended purpose as a hotel, and that the situation “could not be much worse”.
The injunction sought by the authority, if granted, would require the company to stop housing asylum seekers at the hotel within 14 days.
Barristers for the company said the “draconian” move would cause “hardship” for those inside the hotel, and that “political views” were not grounds for an injunction to be granted.
Piers Riley-Smith, representing Somani Hotels, told the court in written submissions that the alleged planning breach was “not flagrant” and that it was “entirely wrong” for the council to “suggest the use has been hidden from them”.
The judge said he would give a ruling on Tuesday and also ordered that Somani Hotels could not “accept any new applications” from asylum seekers to stay at the site until he had ruled on whether to grant the temporary injunction.