Councils win permission for judicial review over Home Office decision to use airfields for asylum seeker accommodation
The High Court has agreed to hear two judicial review challenges brought by Braintree District Council and West Lindsey District Council over plans to house asylum seekers on disused airfields in their areas.
Mrs Justice Thornton granted permission following a multi-day permission hearing this week. She heard the council's claims together, alongside another claim from a Wethersfield resident.
Braintree District Council's judicial review challenges Home Office plans to accommodate up to 1,700 asylum seekers on Wethersfield Airfield in Essex. It will advance on three grounds at the High Court, including a ground that challenges the use of Class Q permitted development rights.
The second and third grounds concern an Environmental Impact Assessment direction and an Equality Impact Assessment.
West Lindsey was permitted to challenge the decision to use RAF Scampton for asylum seeker accommodation on two grounds, including the reliance on an Environmental Impact Assessment screening decision and the reliance on Class Q permitted development rights.
The Home Office avoided having to obtain planning permission to use the two sites via Class Q, part 19, Schedule 2 of the General Permitted Development Order 2015, which allows the Government to develop Crown land in the event of an emergency.
In a statement on the decision, Cllr Graham Butland, Leader of Braintree District Council, said: "The final hearing will be subject to the Court's normal case management process and at this stage, we do not know when the matter would be listed for a final hearing, but we will update residents when we know more."
The Wethersfield resident's claim has also been given permission to be heard on the Environmental Impact Assessment and Class Q grounds.
The Home Office has already begun moving people onto Wethersfield. The airfield is currently home to an initial group of 46 asylum seekers, with more expected over the coming weeks.
Cllr Butland added: "Again we'll continue to work closely with the Home Office and multi-agency partners to ensure there is minimal impact on all those involved residents that live nearby and local services, as well as raising our concerns with the Home Office so it can put in place mitigating action, whilst supporting asylum seekers coming to our district.
"We will also continue to push for regular, open and transparent engagement with the wider community, which to date we feel has been lacking and creating frustrations quite rightly for our residents and businesses who have been left with a void of information."
The leader of West Lindsey District Council, Cllr Trevor Young, said: ""I welcome today's judgment, which I hope the community will take as a positive in that it clearly shows we have a case. However, as we have seen at other large sites across the country and in particular at Wethersfield, the Home Office is continuing to press ahead with its plans to use larger sites for asylum accommodation.
"Therefore, our challenge is to continue to balance our legal process with our duty of care as a local authority, to hold the Home Office to account on their proposals, as we have been doing since March."
He added: "Unfortunately, despite regular meetings with the Home Office and our partners, we still have many unanswered questions. We will continue to raise our concerns with the Home Office so it can put in place mitigating actions. We will also continue to push for open and transparent engagement with our community. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support so far and we will keep you informed as we hear of any updates."
The decision comes after the Court of Appeal dismissed a separate challenge brought by Braintree and West Lindsey that appealed a High Court judge's decision not to grant an injunction blocking the Home Office's plans to use a disused airfield to accommodate asylum seekers.
Adam Carey
