Dear supporters,

I need your support for the last stretch in my bid to stop the asylum accommodation centre in our backyard. A two-day final hearing will begin on 31 October in the High Court to hear my challenge against Suella Braverman and Michael Gove for the decision to use Wethersfield Airfield to house asylum seekers. The Court will also hear the challenge brought by Braintree District Council which is arguing different points from me as a local resident. The RAF Scampton case is being heard as well- it seems likely that if one case wins, they all will.

Asylum seekers have been accommodated on the site since 12 July 2023. Even though the Home Office said no one vulnerable would be accommodated there, it has since transpired that many of the residents are extremely vulnerable victims of trafficking and torture. Many have serious mental health problems and are now being further traumatised through their placement on Wethersfield Airfield which is unsuitable. The conditions on the site also appear to be extremely inadequate making the situation worse.

This is completely unacceptable, and so we have been working very hard behind the scenes to strengthen our arguments and build evidence ahead of the final hearing.

On 14 July 2023, the Court decided that it was at least arguable that the Home Secretary’s plans are unlawful. During the final hearing, the Court will hear our legal arguments to decide whether:

• the Home Secretary acted unlawfully by relying on emergency powers to push through the plans and circumvent planning consultations; and/or
• 
  
• the Levelling Up Secretary produced an unlawful Environmental Screening Direction because it failed to take into account relevant considerations, including that the Home Secretary potentially intending to use the site for longer than 12 months.

I have not been able to meet my target and the lawyers have had to do a lot of work for nothing. We have used your donations to:

• Pay for an expert report from Durham university
• Draft detailed letters to ask the Home Office for information they have been withholding.
• Review hundreds of pages of evidence from the Home Office.
• File skeleton arguments for the hearing.
• Prepare court bundles for the hearing.

We need to raise more funds to pay for our barristers to prepare and attend court for two days and present the strongest possible case.

I will update everyone once the case is listed so that those of you who want to attend can do so. It would be great to see as many people as possible at court to show how much we disagree with the plans!

Thank you for your ongoing help and support!

Best,

Gabe

Dear all,

I am delighted to say that the High Court has today GRANTED this claim permission to proceed! The Court’s said that it thinks it is arguable that the Home Secretary has acted unlawfully. This has come just after an estimated 46 asylum seekers have already been moved onto the site.

Braintree District Council brought a judicial review of the same plans in Wethersfield. West Lindsey District Council brought a third judicial review challenging plans to accommodate asylum seekers at RAF Scampton.

The Decision

All three claims were granted permission on two grounds, the Court finding that it was arguable that:

1. the Levelling Up Secretary produced an unlawful Environmental Screening Direction because it failed to take into account relevant considerations; and
2. the Home Secretary may have acted unlawfully by relying on emergency powers to push through the plans.

Braintree District Council was also granted permission on a third ground arguing that the decision was unlawful because it was based on an insufficient Equality Impact Assessment which failed to consider the impact on community relations.

The Judge also rejected arguments made by the Levelling Up Secretary that my Witness Statement (which explains why I decided to bring the case) should be excluded, finding that there were no grounds to exclude it. 

The Hearings

Mrs Justice Thornton DBE heard arguments over two days in all three claims jointly on 12 and 13 July 2023. At the hearings, my lawyers argued that the situation was not an emergency that would justify the Home Secretary circumventing planning considerations to force through the plans on asylum seekers and communities. They also argued that the Home Secretary has indicated that she will use the site for longer than 12 months which was not taken into account by the Environmental Screening Direction. It was argued very forcefully on behalf of the Home Office that the development was planned for 12 months and that they do not know how long it would last. My lawyers however showed that a contract was entered into with a health service provider for healthcare provision at Wethersfield Airfield for 21 months and that there were numerous contradictory references to a long-term and indefinite plan for Wethersfield and Scampton.

Next steps

This fantastic result means that the Court thinks we have a case to argue! There will be a final hearing listed to decide whether the government is acting unlawfully.

The Court asked the parties to agree directions for a two-day final hearingand I will update you about the timeline once a timetable is set. 

We need to come together to raise as much funds as possible now that we have a good chance to win at a final hearing. Please help us go all the way by sharing this news widely and continuing to support the fundraising.

Thank you for your ongoing support of my case.

Gabe

The High Court of Justice is hearing applications for permission to proceed with judicial review claims brought against the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, challenging plans to set up asylum accommodation centres to house thousands of vulnerable asylum seekers on remote military sites across the UK. The hearings, are taking place over 1.5 days on 12 and 13 July,  and relate to plans which it is argued are being forced through by the Home Secretary using wartime emergency powers to circumvent adequate planning consultations.

My judicial review challenges the Home Secretary’s plan to accommodate 1,700 asylum seekers at Weathersfield airbase. It also challenges the legality of an Environmental Impact Assessment by the Levelling Up Secretary in that it failed to take into account relevant considerations, including that it was assessed on the basis that use of the site would persist for only 12 months when the Home Secretary has made clear that they intend to use the site for considerably longer than 12 months.

Braintree District Council have also brought a judicial review in respect of the same plans in Weathersfield. West Lindsay District Council have brought a third judicial review challenging plans to accommodate asylum seekers at RAF Scampton.

Mrs Justice Thornton DBE has heard arguments in all three claims and will decide if they should be granted permission to proceed to a full hearing. She will also decide whether I can rely on expert evidence obtained which shows that the lack of housing to service the demand faced by asylum seekers is explained by a number of different causes.

If permission is granted then the claims will proceed to a substantive hearing, most likely later this year. Notwithstanding that the claims are ongoing and the lawfulness of the plans is yet to be determined.

The judicial review claims are highly significant for asylum seekers and communities across the UK because they will impact on whether the government can set up potentially unsuitable and harmful military style accommodation for asylum seekers, without any consultation, in remote areas of the UK, by using emergency powers to bypass planning regulations.

In the meantime, the Home Secretary has begun using the site; understand around 46 asylum seekers have been moved in. The Court's decision in my case has been reserved for a later date and I will update everyone once we have the decision.

Lets keep going!

All the best,

Gabe

Thanks to you all for continuing to campaign against these plans and supporting my fundraising effort. In case you have missed the news, my case is listed for a permission hearing at the High Court in London on 12-13 July 2023. It will be heard alongside a similar case brought by West Lindsay District Council, about the Home Office plans in Scampton, as well as a third case brought by Braintree District Council. 

My case is a judicial review which means the court has to decide whether I have permission to bring the case. A High Court judge will listen to the arguments put by my legal team about why my case is important and why is should be allowed to continue. It will also listen to arguments from lawyers representing the Home and Levelling Up Secretaries.

Im happy to report that my legal team have now filed my arguments for the hearing. The other parties have also done the same. 

The Home Office is trying to argue that I do not have any standing to bring this case! They are saying that the case should be thrown out because, as a resident and not the local council, I do not have enough of a connection to this issue. This a shocking development. After months of publicly saying that they recognise the concerns of local residents about these ill-thought out plans, they have now turned around and said that local residents should not have a voice at all. On top of this, the government is also trying to stop my evidence from being admitted, stop the court from considering the 29 March statement made by Robert Jenrick which announced the plans, and has not properly answered our questions about the long-term use of the airbase. My legal team will strongly oppose the Home Secretary’s desperate attempts to silence residents and try hard to convince the court that my case should proceed. 

We need your help to win

We are still far off from meeting our crowdfunding target and I need your help now more than ever. The government has stepped up a gear and is fighting hard to win. We need to do the same. I need to make sure we are in a good position to put in the strongest argument possible and I am asking for your help to do so. Please do support our campaign, donate and share this page far and wide. 

Thank you for your ongoing support and I hope to see you all outside the court! 

All the best,

Gabe

Dear all,

I wanted to thank you for your ongoing support of this campaign and provide an update about what is happening. We have come this far thanks to your support and generosity and now must push even further if we are to win.

As you know there are three judicial review claims about the Home Secretary’s plans – this case, and the claims filed by Braintree DC and West Lindsey DC. The permission hearings for all three judicial review claims are listed to take place for two days on 12 and 13 July. The Administrative Court will decide whether we should be granted permission to proceed to a full hearing. 

Separately, Braintree DC brought a planning case for an injunction, refused by the planning court and then appealed to the Court of Appeal. I intervened in the appeal case. West Lindsey DC and Rother DC were also granted permission to intervene. On 23 June, the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal finding that Braintree DC did not have jurisdiction to bring that specific type of case. However it followed the approach proposed by my intervention not to decide whether the situation was an emergency and leave that issue to be decided in the judicial review cases. My legal team argued that the planning court was the wrong venue to decide this point and that it would be better decided by the High Court in the judicial review. 

As a result, everything will now come down to the outcome of the judicial review cases and it is more important than ever to support our case. The appeal judgment has left the door fully open for the High Court to hear arguments in the context of the full facts and consider the evidence I filed about whether the circumstances constituted an emergency. It can then decide whether the Home Secretary is acting lawfully in using emergency powers to avoid planning processes.

On 27 June 2023, my legal team filed evidence and legal arguments ahead of the judicial review hearing. We are waiting to receive the Home and Levelling Up Secretaries’ arguments. The Home Office has further indicated that asylum seekers will be moved into the site very soon making this case even more important. We need to succeed at the hearing so that the court can move forward with the case and look at the full arguments. I need to fund barristers to attend the two-day hearing so that they can argue why permission should be granted. 

So please donate, share and support this campaign. If you would like to share my legal teams press release with your contacts to help build support, the link is here. It would also be great to see locals inside the court room on the day of the hearing and come together outside the court for a photo. Your support will help me and my legal team fight until the end!

Thank you for your ongoing support.

All the best,

Gabe

Thank you to everyone who has supported my campaign. Im delighted to provide everyone with the following update:

The Wethersfield and Scampton accommodation centre judicial review cases will be considered by a senior planning judge on 12 and 13 July 2023 to decide whether permission should be granted for the claims to continue to a full hearing.

On 27 April 2023, we filed an application for Judicial Review at the High Court of Justice challenging decisions by the Home Secretary and Minister for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to circumvent planning regulations and accommodate 1,700 asylum seekers at Wethersfield MOD airbase.

West Lindsey District Council also applied urgently for a judicial review in relation to similar plans by the Home Secretary to accommodate asylum seekers at RAF Scampton. The Home Secretary then agreed to delay moving any asylum-seeker to the base until 26 June for Wethersfield and 3 July for Scampton. Braintree District Council has also filed a Judicial Review was brought against the Home Secretary which will be heard at the same time.

Government defence

We argued that the decision by the Home Secretary – without consultation with the local planning authority or local residents – to use the Wethersfield base as an asylum accommodation centre is unlawful because she should not be able to rely on emergency powers to avoid usual planning processes. We also said that an Environmental Impact Assessment by the Levelling Up Secretary is unlawful as it failed to take into account relevant considerations, including that the Home Secretary has stated that she intends to use the site for longer than 12 months. 

Legal teams for the Home Secretary and Levelling Up Secretary have now responded to our claim for Judicial Review arguing that the decision was lawful in part because the Home Secretary’s circumvention of planning consultation under emergency powers will be time limited to 12 months and then they will need to apply for proper planning permission in order to continue using the site.

Should the claim be granted permission to proceed, the Court will arrange a full hearing.

Court of Appeal developments

Braintree DC approached the accommodation centre plan by bringing a planning case against the Home and Defence Secretaries which was rejected, but they were given permission to appeal. We will today apply to intervene in this case. I want to ensure that the Court of Appeal has all the evidence in case they consider points about whether or not the shortage of asylum-seeker accommodation is an emergency which can circumvent planning rules. The Court of Appeal will hear Braintree’s appeal on 12 June.

Please do continue to support this campaign. It is very likely that this will be a long battle and we need to continue building our resources to reach a final hearing.

Thank you!

Gabe

Breaking: After judicial review is filed, Home Office delays moving asylum seekers into RAF Wethersfield 

Thank you all for the amazing support since my last update.

As you know, on 27 April 2023, my legal team filed a claim for judicial review against the Home and Levelling Up Secretaries challenging the plan to move asylum seekers to Wethersfield airfield. They did this urgently after the Court refused to grant Braintree District Council injunction to stop the plan. In that case, the Home Secretary indicated to the Court that she wanted to move asylum seekers very soon after the Court delivers its judgment and so there was no legal barrier to the plan from going ahead.

Im very happy to report that the Home Secretary has now responded to my case by giving an undertaking to the Court that she will not begin moving asylum seekers to the airfield until after 26 June 2023! This is good news which will ensure that no one is moved into Wethersfield airfield in the next seven weeks before more legal arguments are put to the Court.

I believe it is very important that vulnerable asylum seekers are not moved in until the plan has been adequately scrutinised by the Court and through the proper planning process.

Scampton

Some of you will have also seen that West Lindsey District Council has applied for a judicial review against the Home Secretary challenging her plan to move asylum seekers to RAF Scampton. The court has asked whether the two cases should be linked so they are considered together. This can help the case, but it means I need to instruct my lawyers to do urgent extra work.

Next steps

As the Home Office is opposing my request for the case to be considered urgently, I would like to instruct my lawyers to draft legal arguments for an urgent hearing so the court can consider this. At present we are well below the costs target.

So it is now more important than ever that we hit our fundraising target. While we are very pleased that the Home Secretary has given her undertaking, this is only an initial victory and we need to make sure that we win our case to stop this from happening after 26 June. The next steps are therefore crucial.

It is very important that we build wide ranging support. So I’m asking everyone to please help do the following:

1. If you still haven’t, please do make a donation on Crowd Justice to strengthen my legal fund.
2. If you have already donated but have the means to make another donation this will help get me closer to my target.
3. Share this campaign and update to your family, friends and colleagues. You can share the link on messaging apps such as iMessage or Whatsapp.
4. Post the news on your social media and ask people to donate.

Thank you for your ongoing support and help.

Gabe

Im very pleased to report that we have now applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the decision by the Home Secretary to use Wethersfield airfield as a large scale asylum accommodation centre. The claim will also challenge a related environmental screening decision made by Michael Gove, at the Department of Levelling Up, which stated there are likely ‘no significant effects’ to the environment of the Home Secretary’s plan. 

My legal team and I decided to bring his claim after the application for an injunction made by Braintree District Council against the Home Secretary was refused by the court last week. The claim challenges the decision to proceed with the plan without local planning consultation. This includes challenging the lawfulness of the screening direction which appears not to have considered real issues such as the consequences of ground contamination present at the site, the impact on local water networks, (already facing issues with overflowing sewers), the impact on the narrow local road network or on the mental health of the local residents. 

As a local resident I have been extremely worried about the real negative impacts that this decision will have for everyone including asylum seekers, my neighbours and local community. I felt that we have been left with no choice but to bring this challenge so that the court can step in where our elected representatives have made it clear that do not want our views heard. 

No consultation has taken place at all between the Home Office and the local community leaving everyone concerned and frustrated. The approach sets a dangerous precedent that will potentially lead to dangerous and unsafe military sites being used to accommodate tens of thousands of asylum seekers across the country. This important claim therefore has the potential to reach far beyond Wethersfield.

There is much more to do in order to progress the claim at court and we need all the support that we can get. We have asked for it to be expedited so things may move very quickly, and I will keep everyone updated on progress. Please do continue to support this campaign and share it widely. The next steps are crucial and we need to hit our stretch target to make it all the way.

Thanks for your ongoing support!

Gabe

More information is available here: https://dpglaw.co.uk/local-resident-takes-braverman-and-gove-to-court-challenging-their-decision-to-house-asylum-seekers-at-wethersfield-airfield/

We are all disappointed after the High Court rejected Braintree District Council’s application for an injunction to stop the Home Secretary’s awful plans. As things stand, there are no legal barriers stopping the Home Secretary from moving 1,700 asylum seekers to Wethersfield Airfield without any form of consultation. 

However my legal team and I still have hope that, with your support, we can stop this from happening.  

We have received responses to our legal letters from the Home and Levelling Up Secretaries. The Home Secretary has unsurprisingly indicated that she intends to continue with this unsafe, and inhumane plan despite all the reasons we believe it unlawful. We believe there are still many more arguments that the court hasn’t had a chance to hear about why the plans are unlawful. We need to explain to the court why the area we know so well is simply not suitable. 

As local residents, our voices must be heard. 

So I have now instructed my legal team to issue a judicial review against the Home and Levelling Up Secretaries so that we can put in our arguments against having these plans. I have asked them to do this at the first opportunity without delay.  

We know that the Home Secretary is still preparing the site for the arrival of asylum seekers.  We are very worried about what will happen if the Home Secretary proceeds without a proper consultation that takes into consideration the very real concerns we all have around safety and the environment. So there is not much time, and everything hangs in the balance.   

We need to move quickly and my legal team are working night and day to make sure we can file the claim without delay.  

Your support so far has allowed me to get this far,  but the next steps are now crucial. We need to do the final work to prepare to file the judicial review claim next week. To do this, we must strengthen our war chest to ensure we have the best chance of succeeding.  

While I will ask the court to limit our costs, we need to raise more funds to ensure we have the firepower to go toe to toe against the government who have much more resources. 

Please donate if you still can and share this update far and wide so we can get more supporters on board and increase our chances to stop the plans! 

Thank you for your ongoing support.  

Gabe

Thank you for your ongoing support of this important campaign.

Thanks to you, my legal team and I have been working very hard behind the scenes and things have been progressing very quickly. 

Here is just some of what has happened since my last update:

1. On 6 April we saw a ‘screening direction’ from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for the first time when it was published on the website of Braintree District Council. The direction, dated 24 March 2023, shockingly concluded that there are likely no significant effects to the environment of the Home Secretary’s plan. The direction surprisingly did not weigh up real issues such as the consequences of ground contamination, or the impact on local water networks. 

2. On 5 April 2023, an expert environmental consultancy firm instructed by Wethersfield Parish Council did an investigation identifying many environmental risks of developing the site. This included potential sources of contamination. This is in stark contrast against what the Levelling Up Department has said; we think that their decision is flawed.

3. So on 13 April 2023, my legal team sent a formal Letter Before Claim to the Levelling Up Secretary, with the contamination report, threatening to bring a judicial review about his direction. This is part of the same court proceedings we are bringing against the Home Secretary. Both letters are an important step towards stopping these plans from taking place without adequate consultation.

4. Braintree District Council’s High Court hearing for an injunction to stop works on the site is now due on 19 April 2023. If that does not succeed, the Home Office could move asylum-seekers to the site soon after. We need to prepare now to be ready to take the next step of issuing a judicial review very quickly if this does not work. 

What now?

We are now awaiting replies to our letters from both the Home Secretary and the Levelling Up Secretary, which are due today. Once we have a response, we will update you about the next steps. Things will likely move very quickly from here.

In the meantime, it is very important that we continue to raise funds as we get ready for court action by consulting experts, drafting witness statements and instructing counsel. Please continue to support and share this page with your friends and family so we can continue to work towards stopping this asylum centre!

Thanks again,

Gabe

Thank you for your ongoing support of this campaign! The target we have hit in such a short amount of time is extraordinary.

Things have continued to progress since my update yesterday, and I am very pleased to report that my legal team has now served a pre-action Letter Before Claim on the Home Secretary. The letter threatens a judicial review of the decision to use Wethersfield airfield to accommodate asylum-seekers. This is the first step in preventing this inadequate and unsafe site from being used as asylum accommodation.

We will wait to hear the Home Secretary's response before deciding what to do next. However, please continue to support and share this campaign. You can do this in a number of ways:

• Email friends and family asking them to pledge.
• Post a link to your Facebook or Instagram asking your friends to pledge.
• Share the link around in a Whatsapp broadcast message.
• Tweet in support of our campaign.

Thanks again for your amazing support.

Gabe

Update

Thank you for the support that has started since I launched this page. I have been overwhelmed by how many of you have pledged and shown support for this campaign.

I have hit my lower initial target for a costs cap and enabled some other costs of the litigation to be paid (my lawyers are working on a heavily discounted basis). We hope things will progress in the next few days but there is much more work needed and we need all the help that we can get to stop these immoral and unlawful plans.

Things have been moving fast and I wanted to update you on what has happened since we launched this page:

1. You will likely have seen the announcement yesterday by the Minister for Immigration confirming the plans to accommodate asylum seekers at Wethersfield.  It turns out that the plan is even worse than we initially anticipated, with the Minister confirming that the site is intended to hold around 1,700 asylum seekers. The Minister confirmed physical work on the site will begin shortly and the Home Office will used a phased approach to gradually increase the number of asylum seekers transferred to the site. The Home Secretary is moving forward very quickly with these proposals, without any form of consultation, and without consideration for the impact it will have on local residents, services or the asylum seekers accommodated there.
2. Braintree District Council announced yesterday that it has issued a claim against the Home Office and is seeking an injunction. A statement was released confirming that the Home Office did not take on board its concerns or that of local residents. My legal team are urgently seeking copies of the papers in that case to consider what role we could play in those proceedings, or whether we need to issue separate proceedings. There may be some legal issues which are important, for example environmental impact or the impact of asylum seekers, which are not currently addressed. I want to ensure all the issues affecting both local people and asylum seekers are considered.

So there is much work to be done and we are continuing to fundraise to ensure we can do this. Please do continue to support and share this campaign. It is vital for more people to join us, and continue to pledge any amount possible, to ensure we have the resources for any challenge or intervention needed to stop this plan.

Thanks again for all your support!

Gabe