Priti Patel: Wethersfield asylum housing plan fails locals

Former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel has accused the Home Office of failing residents over the way it has housed asylum seekers at an ex-RAF base.

MDP Wethersfield, Essex, is earmarked for 1,700 adult male migrants and some are already resident.

Dame Priti claimed the Home Office was "not sharing any information" on the funding of locally-provided services.

The Home Office said it engaged "with local authorities as early as possible" to make sure arrangements are safe.

West Lindsey District Council, Braintree District Council and a local resident have been given permission to bring a judicial review contesting the use of Wethersfield and RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.

Dame Priti, MP for nearby Witham, said she "100%, absolutely" believed the Home Office had failed Braintree taxpayers by "being evasive, they are not actually sharing factual information with us".

She said local tax payers were funding services at the Wethersfield site that "many of my constituents and James Cleverley's [MP for Braintree and Foreign Secretary] don't get access to".

"[For example] Access to NHS primary care services is under pressure here locally, yet there are bespoke health facilities at Wethersfield," she said.

The Home Office's Wethersfield community update letter online states the site "has been designed to be as self-sufficient as possible in order to minimise the impact on local communities".

It says healthcare is being provided on site "to minimise the impact on local health services".

Nick Godley, chairman of Wethersfield Parish Council, said he had been informed 80 asylum seekers were living at Wethersfield this week.

The Home Office said it does not "give a running commentary on how many asylum seekers are at each site at any given time".

Dame Priti said: "It is a struggle to get accurate information from the Home Office about what is going on and it is our local council, our police, our fire service and NHS [which] are putting up-front cost into this and without confirmation about how much money they're going to receive from central government.

"The Home Office is not sharing any information with us or with the community or with the parish council and that is objectionable, which is why residents are right to voice their concerns."

A Home Office spokeswoman said there are more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £6 million a day.

She said: "We engage with local authorities as early as possible whenever sites are used for asylum accommodation and work to ensure arrangements are safe for hotel residents and local people.

"We are working closely to listen to the local communities' views and reduce the impact of sites, including through providing onsite security and financial support."

On Monday, Dame Priti accused the government of being "secretive" about plans to use Wethersfield to house asylum seekers for as long as five years.

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