PRESS RELEASE FROM THE FIELDS ASSOCIATION
March 8th, 2023
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE FIELDS ASSOCIATION
Government plans to house up to 1500 Asylum Seekers on former airbase at Wethersfield
The Fields Association learned, from multiple credible sources, that the MoD Land at Wethersfield Airbase is currently being vacated to enable it to be transferred to the Home Office with the intention to house 1500 single male asylum seekers on the former base.
On Friday March 3rd, The Fields Association wrote/emailed Ben Wallace, Suella Braverman, Michael Gove, James Cleverley, Kevin Brinkley, the leader of Essex County Council and Graham Butland, the leader of the local planning authority, Braintree District Council.
Over the weekend, this issue was featured in articles in the Guardian and the Times. From there, media interest spiralled.
A spokesperson from The Fields Association explained: “This is the wrong place for any major development, and there had been no consultation by the Home Office with re gard to using the land to house Asylum Seekers.”
The area TFA represents is extremely rural in nature, being predominantly farmland and with small villages and hamlets widely dispersed across a large area.
Wethersfield Airbase itself (a site of some 800 acres surrounded by farmland) sits between the small villages of Finchingfield and Wethersfield. The airbase was originally a WW2 RAF base (land having been compulsorily purchased from local farmers) and then a USAF base during the cold war.
The area surrounding the airbase is characterised by narrow and twisting country lanes many miles from A roads. Like many rural communities, we are not served well by public transport. In fact, on the basis of this relative isolation, the area is considered deprived by Essex County Council.
The proposal to use the Wethersfield Airbase site for Asylum accommodation
The site at Wethersfield is almost identical to that at former RAF base at Linton on Ouse, in relation to which the MoD had previously proposed the construction of temporary housing to site refugees and asylum seekers. As you will be aware, those plans were subsequently withdrawn because of that site’s unsuitability for such a purpose. The land at Wethersfield Airbase is similarly unsuitable:
- The rural location of the airbase effectively making the site a quasi-prison
- Lack of facilities and very poor accessibility
- The local unemployment rate is very low, so recruiting staff will be difficult
- The substantial support structure needed to cope with asylum seekers needs is not available
- The inability of local resource to support this, translators, medical support, emergency services, social workers, underage (minors) support
- Lack of community consultation and education
- Unclear Planning requirements despite obvious change of use
We understand that these asylum seekers will have a very small allowance and have little to occupy themselves. To place people in this position in a rural location with a two mile walk to reach the nearest village, unreliable and infrequent bus service from the village and very limited local facilities is inhumane. The reports into the now-closed camps at Penally Camp and Napier Barracks illustrated the negative effects of the camps on the mental health of the already-traumatised residents.
The recent experience in Liverpool and indeed the activity at Linton prior to the plan being withdrawn, illustrates that such concentrated accommodation can also become a target for far-right extremists, which can only add to the mental stress of the refugees and will severely damage community relations.
Other unsuitable proposals in relation to the Wethersfield Airbase site
In September 2021, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) notified some local residents of its intention to build Europe’s largest prison complex on part of the Wethersfield Airbase site. This was an equally unsuitable proposal to that of using the site for asylum accommodation. You have met with representatives of TFA and Wethersfield Airbase Scrutiny Committee (WASC) with regard to the MoJ proposal, and are aware of the many, many reasons why it makes no sense at all.
In relation to the prison proposal, TFA and WASC spent a huge amount of time and money researching how well this proposal would fit with national and local planning guidelines (infrastructure, environment, heritage, etc.), the MoJ’s own guidelines on siting prisons, and how the MoJ are choosing potential sites for their new prisons. Only two positive matches could be established – there is sufficient space and the land is flat. The prison proposal failed all other guidelines and criteria. As you are aware we are currently waiting for the MoJ to confirm their intentions for the base as no planning application has been received to date.
Many of the arguments against the use of the airbase for prisons would apply equally to use for asylum centre accommodation. As noted above, the area is remote with inadequate infrastructure and public transport.
A TFA spokesperson said:
“Whether you agree or not with the latest Government proposals, the fact is that the Government has allowed this backlog of processing Asylum claims to develop. The proposal for Wethersfield is the wrong plan, in the wrong place and they are using the wrong process.
· The wrong plan because Asylum Seeker Camps are are not the way to support people fleeing war, conflict and persecution and who seek peace, safety and community.
· The wrong place because using a miltary base will retraumatise asylum seekers. There is a huge runway, military buildings and barb-wired topped fencing. In addition, the land around the base is used regularly for clay pigeon shoots and the crop scarers sound like gunfire. Furthermore, the rural location means that this is effectively detention.
· The wrong place because there will be no way of providing the services and support that these people will need – medical, dental, legal, translators etc.
· The wrong process because of the total lack of consultation with the local community. We believe the Home Office has only broken cover now because of the noise we have created.”