Further flaws exposed in the Government’s absurd plans to build an asylum centre at RAF Linton-on-Ouse
Proposed plans to build a potential asylum centre at RAF Linton-on-Ouse have always been flawed. The idea of putting male asylum seekers into a small rural village, which clearly does not have the infrastructure to cope, is patently absurd.
Locals made their views clear on any such proposal when the Tories first mooted plans to house asylum seekers at the former RAF station in 2022 and the idea was rightly abandoned.
The fact that Labour seems intent on putting the good people of Linton-on-Ouse through another fight against these plans is unfathomable.
There is no denying that the Government finds itself in an invidious position. It has to end the use of migrant hotels. The issue has proven highly divisive with Reform UK capitalising on the anger that a lot of communities feel towards the idea of migrants being housed in accommodation better than they’re used to. Housing asylum seekers in hotels is hardly sustainable.
But then again, neither are plans to parachute asylum seekers into a quiet village in North Yorkshire. It is simply shifting the problem from one place to another.
Underlining this flawed approach is the contract to oversee the potential asylum centre at RAF Linton-on-Ouse.
Dame Karen Bradley, chair of the Home Affairs Committee, raised concerns after it emerged the Government may not be holding a competitive tender process for firms to manage the site.
She said “it is concerning that some of these contracts have already gone to the same providers who oversaw such failures in the past”.