Police have described claims they bussed anti-racism demonstrators to a protest outside a hotel housing asylum seekers as “categorically wrong” after Nigel Farage and others repeated the allegation.

The response from the Essex police chief constable, Ben-Julian Harrington, came as his force said 10 people had now been arrested in connection with violence that erupted after protests outside the hotel in Epping.

Police are braced for further protests outside the Bell hotel in the town as early as Thursday evening, and on Sunday. Local people have been involved in the protests – which broke out after an asylum seeker was charged with sexual assault – but far-right activists have played a key role in promoting them online and have been present.

Essex police have issued a dispersal order in Epping that is in place from 2pm on Thursday until 8am on Friday, covering an area including the town centre, transport hubs and networks such as the underground station.

The order gives officers the power to tell anyone suspected of committing or planning antisocial behaviour to leave the area or face arrest.

On Thursday, the chairwoman of the Police Federation, Tiff Lynch, wrote in the Telegraph that the disorder was “not just a troubling one-off”.

“It was a signal flare. A reminder of how little it takes for tensions to erupt and how ill-prepared we remain to deal with it.”

She said that local commanders across the country are forced to choose between “keeping the peace at home or plugging national gaps”.

“A summer of further unrest is not inevitable. But it becomes far more likely if we once again fail to prepare.”

The latest clashes took place on Sunday when riot police were once again pelted with projectiles before the area was cleared using a dispersal order.

Harrington used a press conference on Wednesday to push back at allegations that counter-demonstrators were being deliberately transported to be close to the protests outside the hotel last Thursday.

Farage had earlier called on Harrington to resign and posted footage online that the Reform UK leader claimed was proof the force had “transported leftwing protesters to the Bell hotel in Epping”.

Essex police issued a statement on Wednesday saying officers organised a foot cordon around protesters on their way to exercise their right to protest. Later, some people who were deemed to be at risk when they were surrounded by groups of men who had attacked police were taken away in police vans, but the force said officers “categorically did not drive any counter-protesters to the site on any occasion”.

Harrington used the press conference to address online misinformation about the hotel and the policing operation, urging people to “consider the consequences in the real world of your actions”.

The source of the claims that police were bussing counter protesters to Epping appeared to come from social media users who repurposed footage of people taken away on Thursday after violence erupted.

When Reform UK was asked about this, Farage told the Guardian: “Hard-left groups Stand Up To Racism and Antifa were given the red carpet treatment by Essex police, with the force literally escorting and bussing masked thugs to and from the protest. They have been caught red-handed helping to light the fuse that led to violence.”

Harrington also said the force would act on any evidence provided to it, after it emerged a number of activists from the far-right Homeland party were behind a Facebook group that had been organising protests outside the Bell hotel. “I have got no information available to me to say that any particular group or person is behind organising this. Clearly where they are we will examine that and identify that and see what offences they commit, whether they should have notified us about a march or procession.”

Harrington said the force would also be looking to see whether anyone had been acting to incite violence.