Plans to house asylum seekers at disused RAF site lawful, court finds

Government plans to house asylum seekers at a famous disused former RAF site can go ahead after a legal fight, the High Court has ruled.

Council bosses lost a judicial battle to stop ministers using the disused RAF Scampton airfield, where the Dambusters were based during the Second World War, to host migrants.

West Lindsey District Council, in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, argued that a decision to use the land was unlawful – but a High Court judge ruled against the council today.

Mrs Justice Thornton considered arguments at a recent High Court hearing in London.

Braintree District Council in Essex had made a similar complaint in relation to plans for land that once formed part of RAF Wethersfield.

A local resident, Gabriel Clarke-Holland, also challenged plans for Wethersfield, and the judge also dismissed those claims.

Home office and levelling up ministers had argued the claims should be dismissed, while lawyers representing councils made complaints about ministers’ use of planning rules. 

Lawyers also raised concerns about migrants being housed for longer than an initially envisaged 12 months.

The home secretary “has statutory responsibility to provide accommodation… to asylum seekers and dependents who would otherwise be destitute,” Mrs Justice Thornton ruled.

“Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of asylum seekers requiring accommodation has reached unprecedented levels.”

Braintree Council said it aimed to appeal and was “disappointed”.

Council leader Graham Butland said: “We have worked since March to make a strong case that the home office acted unlawfully when making the decision to use RAF Wethersfield.

“We are of course disappointed with this… as we still believe it isn’t an appropriate site for a development of this scale given its remote location and the lack of capacity in local services.”

Nineteen Lancaster bombers, crewed by 133 airmen, took part in Operation Chastise on the night of May 16 1943, known as the Dambusters Raid.

Led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the raid targeted three dams in the industrialised Ruhr region of Germany using the “bouncing bomb” invented by Barnes Wallis.

They successfully breached the Mohne and Eder dams, and the Sorpe was damaged.

Press Association – Brian Farmer