Council loses High Court bid to block asylum centre plan for RAF Scampton

A council has lost its initial bid to block plans to house asylum seekers at a former RAF base.

West Lindsey District Council had applied to the High Court for an interim injunction to prevent the Home Office using RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire, to accommodate migrants.

The base – which was home to the famous Dambusters squadron during the Second World War and later the Red Arrows aerobatics team – was earmarked for a £300 million scheme to develop a new hotel, homes, shops, restaurants and bars.

But it is one of a number of former military sites the government hopes to use as asylum accommodation to reduce the reliance on hotels.

Up to 2,000 people, mainly men, could be housed on the site.

The council asked a judge in London to impose an interim injunction preventing the Home Office moving "materials, equipment or people" onto land at Scampton.

Mr Justice Kerr dismissed the application after considering arguments from lawyers representing the council and Home Secretary Suella Braverman.

Sir Edward Leigh, Conservative MP for Gainsborough, was at the High Court. He said: "I've been... listening to West Lindsey District Council's barrister give an excellent exposition of why the Home Office's decision to use emergency powers over RAF Scampton is perverse.

"There is no emergency."

Lincoln's Labour parliamentary candidate Hamish Falconer accused the government of risking "thousands of jobs without any assessment of the damage".

Posting on Twitter, he said: "They claim it's an emergency, but even Tory MPs say that's not true."

West Lindsey District Council has said it would continue with its legal challenge.

It comes after Braintree District Council lost a similar legal bid to prevent asylum seekers being housed at Wethersfield Airfield.

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