RAF Scampton: Home Office ordered to stop asylum camp work over 'planning breach'

The Home Office has been hit with a legal notice ordering it to halt work converting a former RAF base to accommodation for asylum seekers.

West Lindsey District Council said it had served contractors with a temporary stop notice after a "breach of planning control" at the ex-RAF Scampton.

Ministers want to eventually house up to 2,000 asylum seekers at the Lincolnshire site.

The Home Office said it was "confident" it had complied with planning rules.

The council said it had issued the notice on Friday because work on the former airfield had broken rules on listed buildings and archaeology.

It added the breaches related to the installation of fences, "intrusive" surveying works, groundworks and connections to utilities which had "the potential to cause irreversible damage to important heritage assets".

Sally Grindrod-Smith, the local authority's director of planning, said the Home Office "has not provided the necessary information or reassurances".

The stop notice meant work must halt with immediate effect "until we are furnished with details of the proposed works and can determine whether additional planning consents are required," she added.

The notice was displayed at the site at 07:00 BST on Friday and would remain in force for 28 days unless withdrawn earlier, the council said.

The Home Office said it was considering the implications of the order.

A spokesperson added: "We are confident our project, which will house asylum seekers in basic, safe and secure accommodation, meets the planning requirements."

Developers who had planned a £300m transformation of the Scampton site before the asylum camp plan was announced welcomed the council's intervention.

Peter Hewitt, chairman of Scampton Holdings Ltd, which wants to revive the site as a business, aerospace and heritage centre, said: "It is imperative to safeguard the site's significant heritage, commercial prospects and ensure compliance with all necessary planning consents."

Scampton was one of two surplus military bases which the Home Office announced in March would be repurposed for housing asylum seekers who arrive in the UK illegally.

Ministers said accommodating migrants across Scampton and MDP Wethersfield in Essex, as well as the Bibby Stockholm barge moored off Dorset, would reduce reliance on expensive hotels.

The first of up to 1,700 asylum seekers planned to be housed at Wethersfield arrived in July.

West Lindsey District Council and Braintree District Council have mounted legal challenges to the government's plans, with a judicial review set to be heard at the High Court on 31 October.

The local authorities have warned the sites were unsuitable for the proposals.

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