70 asylum seekers 'moved out of Wethersfield into hotels'

70 asylum seekers are said to be being relocated from the Wethersfield airfield site, near Braintree, into hotels, The Guardian has reported. 

It comes after the Home Office last month obtained a special development order (SDO), instead of going through the usual route of securing council planning permission.

The SDO is since, however, said to have highlighted several concerns about the site, including contamination risk from gases, radiological contamination, and an unexploded ordnance.

There were also worries raised about suitable storage for fuel and other hazardous substances and satisfactory arrangements for drinking water.

Issues - Priti Patel MP for Witham said there have been numerous issues at Wethersfield including health outbursts (Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

Graham Butland, the leader of Braintree Council, said: “Braintree Council has not been involved in the government’s SDO process so when it was laid to Parliament on March 21, this was the first time we had seen its detail. 

"We have since written to the Home Office requesting urgent copies of all the relevant technical documents and plans under the SDO to support our duty in safeguarding the interests of the local community and those living or working on site.

"We are currently awaiting a response from the Home Office.”

Reacting to the revelations, Priti Patel, MP for Witham and former Home Secretary, told the Braintree and Witham Times: "These latest issues once again highlight why the Home Office was wrong to use the Wethersfield site for a large scale asylum accommodation centre.

"At the time I warned the then ministers this site was unsuitable and their plans were flawed.

"Since then we've seen health outbreaks, damage to property and costs spiralling out of control while the Home Office has failed to deliver the project as originally announced.

"Instead of pursuing Wethersfield, the Home Office should have been delivering and implementing the reforms I introduced to enable quicker processing of asylum applications, after removals and detained facilities."

Cost - A recent report found major accommodation sites including Wethersfield cost £46m more than hotel use (Image: PA)

A recent report from the National Audit Office found mass accommodation sites were working out to be £46 million more expensive than hotels at a cost of £1.2 billion.

It cost a total of £1.2 billion for the major accommodation sites in Portland, Dorset, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire as well as the former RAF bases at Scampton in Lincolnshire and Wethersfield in Essex.

The report’s findings also claimed the Home Office originally set aside £5 million each for Scampton and Wethersfieldm which ended up costing £27 million and £49 million respectively.

The report also claimed the Home Office is considering reducing the number of people at Wethersfield – which has a current cap of 800 men – following reports of self-harm and violence among asylum seekers.

In a statement supplied to The Guardian, a spokesman for the Home Office said: “We have always been clear the use of asylum hotels is unacceptable, which is why we moved asylum seekers to former military sites which we ensure are safe to accommodate asylum seekers prior to use.”