‘Gobsmacked’ villagers vow to fight again to stop base becoming migrant centre
Campaigners who successfully fought-off a plan to house migrants at a former military barracks in their isolated village say they are “gobsmacked” the plan has been resurrected and vowed to fight it all over again.
The Government announced on Thursday night that the RAF facility at Linton-on-Ouse, in North Yorkshire, would be part of new plan to accommodate 3,750 asylum seekers at Ministry of Defence sites.
This come four years after there were celebrations in the village, near York, when the then defence secretary Ben Wallace scrapped proposals to house up to 1,500 asylum seekers at the disused site, following a high-profile local campaign against the plan.
On Friday, when one of those campaigners Professor Olga Matthias was asked for her reaction to the new plan, she said: “I can scream. Is that good enough?”
She added: “Who knew that stupidity has such a big, long shelf-life?”
Prof Matthias said: “It’s just disbelief, isn’t it? We’re utterly and completely gobsmacked. Why are they doing this?”
She confirmed that the new announcement had come out-of-the-blue, saying: “It was thrust upon everyone yesterday.
“There’s been absolutely no consultation by the Government, none whatsoever.”
Asked if she thought the Linton Village Action Group thought it was the end four years ago, she said: “Yes, we did. For all the reasons that that we won the campaign last time – infrastructure, dental, the land floods, it’s isolated, there’s no public transport.
“There was a village shop. Now there’s no village shop. We have cars, it’s our choice to live here, but if you have no car, no prospects, what do you do?”
Prof Matthias said the site has also been further decommissioned since 2022, and some of the former military houses have been refurbished and sold.
She said: “The site has significantly deteriorated. It was a dangerous site anyway, because it’s got toxic waste all over the place, it’s got asbestos.
“There’s no power, no water, no phone lines actually on the site. So, if the cost before were prohibitive, they’re now going to be astronomical.”
And she added: “Astronomical costs when they’re spending taxpayers’ money doesn’t bother this Government.”
Prof Matthias said the Government spent millions of pounds on the previous plan, and paid out further millions in compensation to the private company slated to run the migrant centre.
She said: “Probably what the most gobsmacking thing is, is it could be the same civil servants dealing with it this time round.”
Prof Matthias said: “So, why is the Home Office thinking of doing this? Heaven only knows. It does seem to me that it’s important to this Government to be seen to be doing something.
“Let’s hope this will be the 35th U-turn, or however many they’ve done.”
She said the action group never disbanded, even though “we didn’t actually believe that it would raise its head as a proper possibility again”.
Prof Matthias said: “But we have to fight the fight, because somebody’s decided they need soundbites, and they need to be seen to be doing something.
“They will spend time, energy, and money on trying to convince us all that we’re wrong, they’re right, and then, like I say, there’ll probably be a U-turn, and they won’t do it.”
She said that one of biggest problems with the project will be staffing.
She said: “It’s isolated. Who’s going to get here on these country roads for a minimum wage job?
Announcing the plans in April 2022, the Home Office said the facility would provide “safe and cost-effective” accommodation for single adult men who are claiming asylum in the UK and meet suitability criteria.
Senior civil servants from the department were questioned for two hours by residents at a lively meeting in the village, with one saying the villagers were “in crisis”.
Before the plan was scrapped, the local authority said it would seek a judicial review of the proposals and Rishi Sunak – who is a North Yorkshire MP and was running to be Tory leader at the time – said he would scrap the plan if he entered Downing Street.