RAF Scampton migrant camp would 'scupper' redevelopment plans - firm

Housing asylum seekers at RAF Scampton - the ex-home of the Red Arrows - would mean the end of ambitions to transform the site, developers have said.

West Lindsey District Council, working with Scampton Holdings Ltd, recently agreed a £300m deal to revive the site.

The authority said the Home Office had confirmed it was looking at a number of sites for asylum seekers, including Scampton in Lincolnshire.

The Home Office has said it "did not routinely comment on individual sites".

However, government contractor Serco has posted an advert for temporary housing officers to be based at Scampton.

News that the site could be used to house migrants first emerged on Wednesday after the area's Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh said he had been told civil servants were working on plans.

He said he had been told the move would be temporary and would not jeopardise plans to transform the 800-acre site into a development to be used for aviation, heritage, tourism, education and research.

But, in an interview with BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Peter Hewitt, from Scampton Holdings, said the redevelopment plans would be "totally scuppered".

He said the move would be "rather inconsistent with running an airfield and airside operations".

Mr Hewitt said if the housing plans went ahead 40 acres (16.18 hectares) out of 130 acres (52.60 hectares) earmarked for redevelopment would be taken up.

"Worse than that, it is bang in the area that would be first to be developed," he said.

"It just does not work frankly."

He added that there were numerous other sites that could be used, which were "far more suitable" and "don't have the potential loss of this major levelling up opportunity - which the Midlands and Lincolnshire so badly need".

West Lindsey District Council leader Owen Bierley has called on the Home Office to look elsewhere.

"The idea that RAF Scampton is even being considered gives me significant cause for concern, particularly in relation to our local community," he said.

Mr Bierley said plans to revive the site were "ready to go" and if the Home Office went ahead with housing migrants "it would be contrary to its longer-term investment and levelling up plans".

The council leader had previously expressed concerns about the impact on the community if the plans went ahead and about the suitability of the former RAF station to house migrants, given its isolated location.

The authority said the advert to recruit housing officers at the site had also led it to conclude that a decision to deploy RAF Scampton had already been taken.

Lincolnshire is already home to hundreds of asylum seekers being housed in hotels, five of them in Skegness.

In an earlier statement, the Home Office said: "We have always been up-front about the unprecedented pressure being put on our asylum system, brought about by a significant increase in dangerous and illegal journeys into the country.

"We continue to work across government and with local authorities to look at a range of accommodation options and sites but the best way to relieve these pressures is to stop the boats in the first place."

Follow BBC East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].