Home Office has ‘fight on its hands’ from locals over plans to house refugees

Local councils are set to fight back against plans to house 5,000 refugees on a number of former military bases.

The Home Office said yesterday that former army barracks in Lincolnshire, Essex and Bexhill will be re-purposed to house thousands of asylum seekers rather than placing them in hotels.

Opponents warned the Government it had a ‘fight on its hands’, amid concern from Conservative MPs.

One council has already lodged a legal challenge aiming to stop the plan dead in its tracks.

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick announced that 1,200 Channel migrants will be placed in a new centre at Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex.

He also confirmed the Home Office was pressing ahead with other sites at Wethersfield, Essex, and Scampton, Lincolnshire, the former home of the Dambusters squadron and the Red Arrows.

Each will accommodate 200 people initially, with capacity increasing to 1,700 at Wethersfield and 2,000 at Scampton. Only men will be housed at the sites.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was ‘showing leadership’ by bringing forward further proposals to use barracks at Catterick Garrison in his constituency, the minister added.

He said the three first sites would feature ‘re-purposed barrack blocks and Portakabins’ from which migrants will be free to come and go.

Mr Jenrick also told the House of Commons he is ‘continuing to explore’ using ferries and barges as accommodation to reduce the ‘eye-watering’ cost of hotels.

Tory-led Dorset Council said it was aware of talks between the Home Office and the owners of Portland Port to site ‘floating accommodation for asylum seekers’ there.

The newly-announced Bexhill site is a former prison and ex-RAF base known as Northeye.

Lisa Marchant, 41, a mother of two whose home backs onto it, said: ‘This is a quiet community with many young families and there are huge concerns about their safety.’

The area’s MP Huw Merriman – the railways and HS2 minister – said he would be meeting Mr Jenrick today, adding: ‘I know that this decision will have an impact on local authorities and public services.’

In Essex, Braintree District Council applied to the High Court yesterday for an interim injunction against the plan.

And Simone Sutcliffe, 76, who has lived opposite the area’s base for 41 years, said: ‘The Government will have a fight on their hands.’

Sir Edward Leigh MP, whose constituency includes the Scampton site, said the council would lodge applications for an injunction and judicial review.

Mother-of-four Samantha Taylor-Eggleson, one of 700 residents next to the Scampton base, said her seven-year-old ‘won’t be allowed out’.

Speaking prior to the expected announcement on Wednesday, Rachel Green, a resident on the site for 22 years, said: ‘My main concern is security. We’ve got a lot of young families here with lots of children about.

‘The fence is not secure, and even if the fence was secure, it is said they’ll be able to roam free and this is where they’ll come because it’s 100 yards out of the front entrance from the camp to the housing estate. We don’t feel secure.’

Lyn Webb, another resident, said the Government are ‘not bothered’ about local residents, who have had to organise community groups and petitions to raise their concerns.

She said: ‘We’ve heard absolutely jack-shit.

‘We’ve had no communication whatsoever. Nothing from the Home Office, nothing from any MPs, even (Sir) Edward Leigh.

‘None of them want come and see where we live. None of them want to come and see how close it’s going to be, they just want to look at pictures, they’re really not bothered, we’re a nothing.

‘It makes me feel awful. A lot of us have been here for over 20 years in a safe, secure environment, and all of a sudden that is going to be taken away.’

Mr Jenrick insisted yesterday that there would be ‘specific protection for the unique heritage’ of the site amid fears the plans could damage the historic Dambusters headquarters.

But Ernest Twells, 77, whose father Ernie carried out 65 dangerous missions with 617 Squadron, said: ‘My dad would be very, very upset they are going to do this.’

Latest figures show the cost of migrant hotels was running at more than £6.3million a day in December, after a record 45,700 Channel arrivals last year.

The new sites are expected to house fresh arrivals across the Channel rather than asylum seekers already living in hotels.

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