West Lindsey fails in interim injunction application over Home Office plans to place asylum seekers at disused RAF base

A High Court judge, Mr Justice Kerr, has rejected an application by West Lindsey District Council for an interim injunction blocking the Home Office from placing asylum seekers at RAF Scampton.

The Lincolnshire council said it was "disappointed" with the outcome of the hearing yesterday (11 May) but noted that without the proceedings, the Home Office would not have provided an undertaking not to move asylum seekers onto the site until after 3 July.

The local authority added that there was "recognition" of the significance of the site and the damage to the council’s £300m investment plan for the site caused by the Home Office's proposals. It also reported that the court heard that senior civil servants recommended the Government not progress with the proposals for accommodating asylum seekers at RAF Scampton.

Up to 2,000 asylum seekers will be accommodated on the now-disused RAF base, once home to the Red Arrows, if the Home Office's plan is realised.

RAF Scampton is one of three disused sites that the Home Office has chosen to house asylum seekers, with Wethersfield Airfield in Essex and Northeye Prison in East Sussex also selected.

The Home Office is relying on Class Q permitted development rights, which allows the Government to develop Crown land in the event of an emergency. Class Q is set out in The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.

West Lindsey is still set to argue against the Home Office's plans at a full judicial review hearing in the future. Its judicial review challenge will contend that the site does not have the appropriate planning permission and that the Home Office's decision was irrational.

West Lindsey is one of two authorities to have launched legal challenges to the Government's plans to move asylum seekers onto the disused sites, the other being Braintree District Council.

Braintree also failed to secure an interim injunction - with Mr Justice Waksman concluding that the High Court did not have jurisdiction to rule on the issue - but is now pursuing an appeal in the Court of Appeal. West Lindsey has applied to intervene in those proceedings,

A third legal challenge has also been lodged by a member of the public who lives next to Wethersfield Airfield.

Meanwhile, Rother District Council also hinted at a potential legal challenge, having announced that it is "currently considering all options, including legal options" in regard to the Home Office's planned usage of Northeye Prison.

Adam Carey