Fight or flight at RAF Scampton

RAF Scampton residents campaigning against the Home Office’s planned asylum centre say they are not backing down ahead of the one-year anniversary of the controversial project’s announcement.

A year of waiting for an asylum camp has taken its toll on local residents. But some believe they can still stop the plan.

“I want out. I want to run away.”

Wayne Thomson is tired. He’s just finished a run of night shifts at the supermarket where he works. But it’s more than that.

“It's the worst year I’ve had for sickness at work,” he tells me.

He and his wife have looked at selling their house, but the money doesn’t add up. He feels trapped.

“We could take £150,000 and walk away and make nothing - when we could have walked away in 2022 and made £40,000 or £50,000. For the government just to say ‘that’s lost’, we’ve got to absorb that...” He shakes his head as he speaks.

Wayne, 42, bought a house on Scampton camp – the old marriage quarters next door to the former RAF base.

He grew up in places like this and looked forward to the community and freedom his six-year-old daughter would have.

Last March local people were celebrating the announcement of a potential £300m regeneration plan for the base.

Days later, it emerged the government wanted to use it to house up to 2,000 male asylum seekers.

Residents raised concerns about the number of men arriving into their small community and the impact that would have on local services.

The Home Office said the justification was clear. In a statement it said: "Delivering accommodation on surplus military sites provides more orderly, suitable accommodation for those arriving in small boats while reducing the use of hotels."

That's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's line too.

While he told locals in an interview with BBC Lincolnshire in February he "appreciated the frustration" about the decision, he urged them to back his Rwanda deal to resolve their grievances.

Walking around, I notice the increase in camera door bells and home CCTV.

"We've put cameras up on a house," says Wayne, "but we're looking at having a security company, which is a cost.

"Our car insurance has just gone up. The house insurance - it's gone up. How? Where do you find the money?"

The Home Office said it "appreciates the concerns" about house prices and insurance but did "not intend to offer compensation”.

The asylum camp plan has been delayed by legal challenges from West Lindsey District Council. No migrants have yet moved in.

People here are getting on with their lives as children head home from school and dog walkers chat near the park.

But you don't have to peel back many emotional layers to find ongoing anxiety and anger.

"It’s horrendous - like a cloud looming over you constantly. It's never really out of your mind," says Jason Bayliss, 55.

Over a coffee in his kitchen, he sums up what many have told me over the past 12 months

"Truthfully, there's just shy of 700 of us that live here on the camp. It feels like we don’t matter at all."

The Home Office says it has engaged with the local community.

But Jason adds, "We forced them to speak to us face to face, we forced them to engage with us. I think it came as a shock to them that we weren’t just going to take it. We won’t."

Protest camps have become a fixture on the A15 and they could be split into two groups.

One is predominantly made up of locals, the other with people from across the country, the latter attracting some with more hard line anti-immigration views.

Though they’ve had the same aim – to stop the asylum plan, they’ve operated somewhat separately and there’s been tension and disagreement between the two groups about each other's approach.

Lincolnshire Police has dealt with several instances of unrest. Two people were charged with public order offences in October 2023 following reports of people being verbally abusive and threatening towards the public and site staff.

Police also said they received reports of access to the site being blocked.

And then there are accusations of online abuse and even a physical attack – now in the hands of the force.

Rachael Green, 58, and her retired friends Mandy and Sue were at the gate from the very early days.

Their concerns centred around safety and the fact the camp would have more services than the community, with the estate not even having a shop. The Home Office said services within the camp are to try and keep it self-contained.

However, Ms Green and her friends eventually withdrew from their position at the gates.

"We'd sort of backed off anyway because it just didn't feel right anymore with the threats and everything," she said.

"When people were beaten up in the early hours of the morning, that was just it for me.”

The camp at the main gate now appears calm and much more quiet.

Sarah Carter, a cake decorator, turned regular spokesperson for the Save Our Scampton campaign said the people who were manning that camp have left.

She has moved in.

She wants to focus on the community’s concerns and is determined as ever.

"We will carry on until the bitter end,” she says. "If it takes a year, if it takes two years. We'll still fight it."

The charity Refugee Action has spent 35 years helping refugees starting new lives in the UK.

It said: "We must start from a place of humanity. The people who are the subject of these debates are desperate, they have been through hell, and seeking asylum is a fundamental human right."

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