Wethersfield: Court told housing migrants at airfield not justified

A district council has told a High Court judge that the government's plan to house asylum seekers at a former RAF station is not justified.

The Home Office wants to accommodate up to 1,700 adult male migrants at MDP Wethersfield in Essex.

Braintree District Council has applied for an injunction to prevent the development.

A judge has adjourned a one-day hearing and said a decision could be reached on Friday.

The Home Office and Ministry of Defence argue that changing the use, of what is government-owned land, is justified by planning laws because it would prevent an emergency which "threatens serious damage to human welfare".

The council's barrister Wayne Beglan however said the proposals were "a flagrant breach of planning control".

"Mere pressure on resources is not an emergency," he added.

"They are not emergencies sufficient to justify circumventing the normal planning controls."

The government wants to stop housing asylum seekers in hotels, which it estimates costs £6.2m per day.

It said 48,000 out of 109,000 asylum seekers in the UK, as of March this year, were in hotels.

Paul Brown KC, for the government, said the impact of the pandemic, the relocation scheme for Afghans and war in Ukraine were creating "record" numbers of asylum seekers.

"It's a situation which, if it's not dealt with, if there's not a response to it, threatens homelessness," said Mr Brown.

"The scale of damage is potentially significant, i.e. the situation 'threatens serious damage' to human welfare."

He argued the council's claim should be thrown out and the local authority made to cover the government's legal costs.

Mr Brown said government would delay efforts to relocate migrants to Wethersfield by two weeks, to 3 May, while awaiting the judge's decision.

Mr Justice Waksman said: "This is a matter that needs to be resolved quickly."

There is no longer an RAF presence at Wethersfield but it is used for Ministry of Defence Police training.

The site is about 335 hectares and is located 10 miles from the nearest railway station in Braintree.

The Conservative-run council has previously argued it is too "isolated" for the proposals.

Alan McKenzie, chair of the local residents' Fields Association - which is opposed to development at the airfield - said outside the High Court that he would be back for the decision on Friday.

"I think it is sensible to not develop the site very much at all and leave most of it as it is, but use it as a heritage centre," he said.

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