RAF Scampton: Council given access to inspect asylum centre work

Council officers will be allowed onto a former RAF station later to assess work to prepare it to house asylum seekers.

West Lindsey District Council served a temporary stop notice (TSN) on the Home Office over concerns heritage assets at RAF Scampton were not being protected.

Its officers were refused access earlier in the week, but the authority said it would be allowed access today.

The government had previously said it was "confident" it had complied with planning rules.

The TSN issued on Friday required contractors to stop work near listed buildings, including intrusive surveys and erecting fences.

Sally Grindrod-Smith, the council's director of planning, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "Following the Temporary Stop Notice, the council has been granted full access to the site on Thursday, September 14.

"Technical officers will assess all activities across the site and then they will need time to consider the findings."

She said the authority would like to thank the community for its support and for "providing us with information on the site".

The Home Office previously said: "We are confident our project, which will house asylum seekers in basic, safe and secure accommodation, meets the planning requirements."

Ministers announced in March that Scampton was one of two surplus military bases to be used for asylum seekers arriving illegally in the UK.

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

The plan at Scampton is to eventually house up to 2,000.

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 Home Office has refrained from commenting further due to those proceedings.

Leader of the Save Our Scampton campaign group and resident Sarah Carter said: ""It makes us sick that the Home Office are carrying on with this work before the judicial review has even happened.

"All they care about is how much money they are saving by not having to use hotels to house asylum seekers, but it could all be cancelled come the end of October."

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