Linton on Ouse: Government misses deadline to justify asylum seeker centre plans

Hambleton District Council told the Home Office it is planning to take legal action and apply for a judicial review to halt the plan, when it sent the Government department a pre-action protocol letter last month.

Councillor Mark Robson, leader of the council, said it was “a necessary step to any potential legal action” and the Home Office had until June 14 to respond, but it missed that deadline.

The letter stated the Home Office may have acted unlawfully by pressing ahead with the proposals without following the correct process, set out the impact it could have on the local community and ordered the Government department to justify the decision.

The Home Office is not expected to respond until June 28 and it is still waiting for Ministers to sign off on the proposal, which would see the old RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse get converted into a centre for up to 1,500 asylum seekers.

Councillor Robson said the council is still preparing to take legal action and “doing all it can to prevent this taking place”.

The Tory councillor added: “We haven’t had the response and we’re not going to get one now until June 28 – even then I’ll believe it when I see it – but we are working in the background and doing everything possible, along with MP Kevin Hollinrake, to ensure that this doesn’t go ahead.”

Contractor Serco has been appointed to run the centre and it is already recruiting staff, but the plan has not been signed off yet and no opening date has been set.

Mr Hollinrake has said it is “unlikely” that anyone will be placed there this month and he is urging Ministers to reconsider this “crazy decision”.

In Parliament yesterday, the Tory MP told Home Secretary Priti Patel: "Reception centres have to be in the right location so they don’t present an unfair or undue burden on any one community, including the 600 people of Linton-on-Ouse who are expecting an intake of up to 1,500 young single men right in the centre of that village.

“Does she agree that policy should be reconsidered?”

Ms Patel said she is committed to working with Mr Hollinrake to address the concerns raised, but processing centres “are the right way forward” and are being set up in other countries with EU funding.

“We have to have the right provisions and facilities within these reception centres and that’s exactly what we are working to achieve,” she added.

The Government has previously said the old RAF base in Linton-on-Ouse is a viable location because it provides accommodation and facilities which are in a reasonable condition.

In Parliament, Ms Patel said the Government will press ahead with its plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda despite an 11th-hour legal ruling by a European court which halted the first departure.The Home Secretary said she was surprised by the European Court of Human Rights’ intervention, overruling domestic judicial decisions, but told MPs it was “inevitable” there would be legal challenges to the Government’s policy.

The Minister said “inaction is not an option” and the Government cannot continue to allow people to travel to the UK illegally and be exploited by people smugglers, or spend around £5m a day on providing asylum seekers with hotel accommodation

“We are a generous and welcoming country, as has been shown time and time again. Over 20,000 people have used safe and legal routes to come to the UK since 2015,” she said.

“But our capacity to help those in need is severely compromised by those who come here illegally and , as we have discussed in this house many times, seek to jump the queue because they can afford to pay people smugglers.

“It is illegal and it is not necessary because they are coming from other safe countries.”