Braintree Council has dropped its legal fight challenging the Home Office’s use of the Wethersfield Airfield as asylum accommodation.
The council announced today it has withdrawn from its ongoing Judicial Review appeal process, after initially launching the challenge last year.
Braintree Council was originally given permission to pursue a judicial review to challenge the Home Office’s use of RAF Wethersfield to house up to 1,700 asylum seekers in July.
The Judicial Review was brought against the Home Office’s decision-making around the use of emergency permitted development rights (known as Class Q) and the interpretation of an emergency.
The case took place at the High Court over a two-day hearing on Tuesday, October 31, and Wednesday, November 1, in which the council pursued to challenge the Home Office in their decision to use the site.
However, the High Court in London ruled against the council, with Mrs Justice Thornton determining the Home Office acted lawfully when making the decision to use the site for this purpose.
Following the decision, the council decided to appeal, which has now been withdrawn.
The decision comes after the Home Office confirmed it had laid a Special Development Order (SDO) in Parliament, which came into force on April 11, and grants planning permission for the site to be used for asylum accommodation for a further three years with up to six months decommissioning.
The council said following the SDO being put in place, “it is no longer expedient to pursue the appeal”.
The council also said it had to assess whether the “gain arising from the action is worth the risks associated such as additional costs incurred, adding to the council’s budget pressures, and impact on council resourcing”.
Council leader Graham Butland said: “We’ve stated since day one we do not agree with the approach the government has taken by using the site for large-scale asylum accommodation and bypassing us as the local planning authority to grant itself permission, which meant the opportunity for communities’ voices to be heard was lost.
“We’ve spent the last few months carefully considering our legal challenge and with the Special Development Order now in place, we feel at this time it is within the best interest to safeguard our resources and money.
“The cost of the legal challenges has had to be met by taxpayers across the whole of the Braintree District, which has been an important consideration as part of this decision.
“It was important for us to challenge the decision taken by government and we have worked extremely hard over the past year to challenge the Home Office's decision on the use of the site.
“We know how important this site is to our communities and we are committed to continuing to do all we can to continue to represent their views, maintain an open dialogue with the Home Office and work with our partner agencies to ensure the needs of our community and those living on site are met whilst the site is in operation.
"We will also continue to listen and work with the community regarding the future of the former RAF Wethersfield site, post the period of the SDO.”
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