Wethersfield Airfield and housing asylum seekers

The Immigration Minister announced their intention to proceed with securing accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield on Wednesday, 29 March 2023. More information can be found on the GOV website.

They have published a factsheet relating to MoD Wethersfield Asylum Accommodation.

Our latest statements on this matter can be found below.

Update: Friday 26 May 2023

A statement from our Leader Councillor Graham Butland:

We have received notification that our appeal against the High Court’s decision regarding the interpretation of Class Q and the refusal to grant the Council an injunction to stop the Home Office’s proposals to provide accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield will be heard on 12th June 2023.

We are also currently working with all parties across the three judicial reviews that have been brought against the Home Office decision to use this site and RAF Scampton in West Lindsay. We have received confirmation from the High Court that the permission hearing on all three judicial reviews (which will determine whether the parties are granted permission to proceed with the judicial reviews) will be heard on 12th and 13th July 2023, after the appeal hearing.

In line with the undertaking provided as part of the injunction legal proceedings, we have received further confirmation from the Secretary of State for the Home Department that in view of the pending appeal hearing, they will not be placing any asylum seekers on the site before 26 June 2023.

We have continued to stress the importance to the Home Office of them keeping residents and businesses updated on their asylum centre plans for RAF Wethersfield. We are aware the Home Office are setting up engagement sessions with residents in the nearby area, the wider local community and stakeholders including parish councils over the next couple of weeks, as a way of keeping people updated on any progress and developments, and for people to ask questions and share concerns. We will continue to keep residents updated.

Update: Thursday 11 May 2023

A statement from our Leader Councillor Graham Butland:

As some of you will be aware, we have decided to appeal the High Court’s decision not to grant Braintree District Council an injunction against the Home Office’s proposals to secure accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield.  

We do not have a date for our appeal hearing yet, but we will keep residents updated once we know more.  

As previously stated, we have continued to look at the other legal options available to us and we have also issued an application for judicial review challenging the Home Office’s decision to use the site for this purpose.  

We are aware there are currently two other judicial review proceedings that have been issued from West Lindsey District Council for their site at RAF Scampton and a resident from Wethersfield. We understand West Lindsey’s judicial review includes an application for an interim injunction which is due to be heard by the High Court today (Thursday, 11 May) and we will assist the court in any directions for future management of all three judicial reviews.  

The Home Office can still prepare the site whilst legal proceedings are in progress and we understand survey work is still ongoing.  

We still need to prepare to support any asylum seekers if legal proceedings are not successful. We are continuing to work with local partners to plan for this as well as mitigating any pressures on local services and the impact on the local community.  

We are aware of the possibility of funding for local authorities with a per-bedspace payment for asylum seekers, however we have not received any details from the Home Office and we do not know what level of funding is being proposed or what it will be provided for at this stage. We do however expect this funding to be called upon by a number of other local partners and not just Braintree District Council.  

We recognise that there are still many unanswered questions about these proposals and ongoing concerns within the community. Please know that we are doing all we can behind the scenes to press the Home Office for more details, encouraging them to urgently share additional information when it becomes available and to engage proactively with the community. With our partners, we continue to raise questions and concerns from the community as part of these discussions. We will keep residents updated as we progress with our legal proceedings and with any information we receive from the Home Office.  

Thank you to all residents, parish councils, community groups and MP’s for your continued support as we move through this process. 

Update: Friday 28 April 2023

Last Friday we received the High Court’s judgement on our injunction application to challenge the Home Office’s proposals to secure accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield.

The High Court decided not to grant us with an injunction and determined that the Home Office is permitted to rely upon the provisions set out within Class Q.

We have been reflecting on next steps and have decided to proceed with appealing the High Court’s decision, as we share the same view as many in our community that Wethersfield Airfield is not a suitable site for asylum use, and we remain of the view that the Home Office cannot rely on the use of permitted development rights (Class Q) as a way of getting around the need for planning permission.

We will be preparing our appeal papers and will be lodging these within the next week. We’ll then await notification of when the appeal will be heard by the Court of Appeal and keep residents updated.

This appeal does not stop the Home Office from continuing to prepare the site to house asylum seekers. We will be requesting that the appeal is heard before the Home Office place any asylum seekers on site.

We know there is still a lot of uncertainty amongst the community on these plans and we are continuing to press the Home Office to engage directly with the local community to share more detailed plans about their proposals and fully understand the concerns being raised.

The government has issued a frequently asked questions document published on their website. However, some details remain unclear. We are still lacking detailed information from the Home Office on the needs of any asylum seekers and the facilities that would be provided on site.

In the meantime, we are continuing to work with our multi-agency partners to prepare if plans go ahead and identify any actions required so that we can support any asylum seekers accommodated and help to minimise any impacts on our local communities.

Update: Friday 21 April 2023

Our application for an injunction was heard by the High Court on Wednesday 19 April. This challenged the proposals by the Home Office to secure accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield and their reliance on the use of permitted development rights (Class Q) as a way of getting around the need for planning permission. We had sought to obtain an injunction to restrain them from using the site for this purpose. 

We are disappointed that the High Court did not grant us with an injunction to restrain the Home Office from their proposals and have determined that the Home Office is permitted to rely upon the provisions set out within class Q. 

We remain of the view that Wethersfield Airfield is an unsuitable site, given the lack of capacity in local services, its isolated location, the size of the site, and the fact that the scale of the development proposed could have a significant impact upon the local community, and want to thank all those who have worked with us, including local residents, community groups, parish councils and MP’s, up until this point.  

We are grateful to the Judge for granting the council’s application for an appeal and we will now be reflecting on any next steps. 

If plans do go ahead, we will continue to work closely with our partners to press the Home Office to share more detailed information about their plans with the local community and identify any actions required so that we can support any asylum seekers accommodated as well as minimising any impacts on our local communities. 

We will continue to keep the community updated. 

Updated: Thursday 20 April 2023

We have received confirmation that Mr Justice Waksman will deliver his judgement on Friday 21 April at 2pm.

Updated: Wednesday 19 April 2023

Our application for an injunction was heard by the High Court today (Wednesday 19 April). This challenged the proposals by the Home Office to secure accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield and their reliance on the use of permitted development rights (Class Q) as a way of getting around the need for planning permission. We had sought to obtain an injunction to restrain them from using the site for this purpose. 

Mr Justice Waksman has reserved judgement which means a decision will be given at a future date.  

As soon as we receive an indication on an anticipated date for a decision, we will keep residents updated.

As always we will continue to keep residents informed when we know more.  

Again, a huge thank you to residents, businesses, community groups, MP’s and parish councils for working with us on this matter. 


Our previous statements on this situation can be found at www.braintree.gov.uk/wethersfieldairfield.

Following Braintree District Council applying for an injunction against the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence to stop them establishing an asylum centre at Wethersfield Airfield, we have secured agreement from the High Court for a full injunction to be heard on 19th April 2023. By securing a full day hearing on the legality of the Home Office’s actions, we have been able to obtain further information about the potential use of the site.   

As part of our legal proceedings, the Home Office has confirmed to the judge hearing the case that they will not move asylum seekers on to Wethersfield Airfield until a time after the court hearing and will only do so if they succeed in defending their position against our injunction. We will keep residents updated on the outcome of the hearing.

The Home Office has however confirmed that whilst they will respect the outcome of our legal action, they will begin preparing the site for asylum seeker accommodation from today (Thursday 6th April 2023). Whilst this means that our legal action has not yet stopped the Home Office from starting to prepare the site for asylum seeker accommodation, our court hearing will provide an opportunity for the issues to be fully considered and for a determination to be given by the High Court on the legalities of the proposal. 

Also, in response to our requests to the Home Office for information on their proposals, we have been supplied with an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening direction. The direction states that the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (SSLUHC) does not consider that the potential environmental impact of an asylum centre being established at Wethersfield Airfield would not constitute development that would require an EIA and that therefore there is no need for a full Environmental Impact Assessment to be carried out. Whilst we have not received the actual documentation submitted by the Home Office with their Screening Request, the SSLUHC has provided a written statement explaining their decision and this statement offers some information on the proposed use of the site.

The documentation can be viewed on our public access website (www.braintree.gov.uk/pa), using application reference 23/00942/SOS.

We remain of the view that Wethersfield Airfield is an unsuitable site to house asylum seekers, given the lack of capacity in local services, its isolated location and the fact that the scale of the development proposed could have a significant impact upon the local community. 

We have continued to encourage the Home Office to engage proactively with the local community on their plans and will continue to ask them for updates and information on behalf of our community.

We were expecting to attend the High Court today (Wednesday, 5 April) regarding our challenge to the proposals by the Home Office to secure accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield, with the intention of obtaining an interim injunction to restrain the Home Office from using the site to accommodate asylum seekers. 

 

We were informed late yesterday afternoon (Tuesday, 4 April) by the High Court that the Judge assigned to hear the case has decided that the hearing could wait to be heard after the Easter court recess. We therefore look forward to bringing our legal case forward to the Judge after Easter and will keep residents updated on the outcome.  

 

We remain of the view that Wethersfield Airfield is an unsuitable site to house asylum seekers, given the lack of capacity in local services, its isolated location and the fact that the scale of the development proposed could have a significant impact upon the local community. 

 

Thank you again to all those who are continuing to work with us on this matter, including the local MP’s, parish councils, community groups and residents.  

 

We have said from the start that if plans do go ahead, we will work closely with our partners to identify any actions required to support any asylum seekers accommodated as well as minimising any impacts on our local communities. We are continuing to press the Home Office for more detailed information about their plans. 

 

We recognise members of the public have noticed increased activity on site and we expect the Home Office to engage proactively with the local community on their plans and we are continuing to encourage them to urgently do this. 

 

As always, we will continue to keep residents informed when we know more. 

We are aware from the announcement made by central government today, Wednesday 29 March 2023, that the Home Office are intending to proceed with securing accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield. 

It is extremely disappointing that concerns raised by us and the local community have not been taken on board. Our view remains that Wethersfield Airfield is an unsuitable site, given the lack of capacity in local services, its isolated location, the size of the site, and the fact that the scale of the development proposed could have a significant adverse impact upon the local community. 

For the past two weeks officers have been working tirelessly to keep the situation under review and urgently seeking clarification and more information from the Home Office on these plans.  

We have been exploring all legal options available to us to challenge the Home Office on their decision making and challenge the plans from going ahead. Following legal advice we received, we applied to the High Court this morning (Wednesday 29th March) for an interim injunction. This injunction challenges the Home Office proposals to place asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield. The matter is expected to be listed before the High Court within the next 7 days. We understand that the application will be heard by the High Court before the site is occupied by asylum seekers.  

We want to say thank you again to all those who have been working with us, including local parish councils, community groups and residents. We will continue to work with everyone as we move forward. 

If the plans do go ahead and the High Court decide not to grant an interim injunction, we will work closely with our partners to urgently identify any actions required to support any asylum seekers accommodated as well as minimise any impacts on local communities. 

It’s important for us to be keeping the local community updated on these plans and we will continue to press the Home Office for more information on their plans and keep our channels updated as and when we know more, including the outcome from the High Court regarding the injunction. 

We have now applied to the High Court for an interim injunction. This injunction challenges the Home Office proposals to place asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield. We would expect such an application would be heard within 7 days, and we expect the matter to be heard by the High Court before any asylum seekers are occupied on site. We will provide further updates as we know more.

Following the Council’s ongoing considerations and concerns relating to the Home Office proposals to secure accommodation for asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield, we are preparing to apply to the High Court for an interim injunction. This injunction challenges the Home Office proposals to place asylum seekers at Wethersfield Airfield. The papers are expected to be lodged with the High Court imminently. We would expect such an application would be heard within 7 days, and we expect the matter to be heard by the High Court before any asylum seekers are occupied on site. We will continue to keep residents updated.