30/01/2026
📌This Newsletter contains updates on our ongoing efforts to ensure appropriate use of the Airbase site.
Current use of the Airbase – the Asylum Centre:
In the lead up to the election Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting were saying they would resolve the asylum issue, that military bases were unsuitable for asylum seekers and that Wethersfield would be closed as soon as practicable. We are all aware of the backsliding the Labour government has done ever since.
Indeed, despite our warnings, the Government has increased numbers onsite from the 580-person limit imposed when the Special Development Order (SDO) was granted. After the required SDO surveys were completed, the Home Office increased the limit to 800 (which they themselves set) with a so-called ‘surge’ capacity of 1,245 provided by conversion of a couple of barrack blocks.
Now we are hearing that the government is looking at using yet more military bases in other areas to get asylum seekers out of hotels, despite the fact the National Audit Office says military bases are more expensive. It would be no surprise if the SDO maximum of 1,700 is eventually targeted at Wethersfield, nor would it be a surprise if the SDO was extended beyond its planned expiry date of 10th October 2027, was extended.
We all experienced the increase trouble at the Asylum centre when numbers were increased on previous occasions, so it is of little surprise that recently there has been a reported increase in incidents on the base and a notable increase in emergency traffic on our roads (often late at night). Although the government has been processing asylum seekers more quickly, it is still likely that the number of problems on the base will increase significantly if numbers increase to 1,245 or even 1,700.
TFA, along with the Parish Councils, continues to lobby central government on the unacceptable social burden of an asylum seeker population roughly double the two local villages. NOWHERE else in the UK is this ratio deemed fair or acceptable.
📌Future use of the base: Prisons
The 6 New Prisons Programme have been filled, with Chorley in Lancashire being the last of them, Wethersfield was always a back-up site.
The MoJ also published its 10-year prison capacity strategy in December last year, so it should be many years before Wethersfield is looked at again from the point of view of a new prison being built. This government does not have the money to commit to another £500m per prison anyway.
However, the MoJ does have a stated ambition to secure new land in readiness should further prison builds be required in future since it does not have any uncommitted sites in its pipeline.
We remain aware of the MoJ’s position on Wethersfield: “we will continue to maintain an interest in Wethersfield as part of our long-term pipeline strategy.”
Ominously, the ability of the government to ride roughshod over local planning processes is being ever increased, we need to be vigilant.
This is not helped by Kemi Badenoch saying she campaigned for a prison to be built at Wethersfield. Nobody was aware that she had and it sounded like grandstanding to be seen as tough on crime rather than being knowledgeable.
We are therefore continuing to make representations to the Labour government and Reform in regards to how unsuitable Wethersfield is for prisons.
📌Future use of the base: Local & Neighbourhood Plans https://www.fw-np.org/community
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) outlines how planning law requires that applications for planning permission be determined in accordance with the development plan (which includes Braintree District Council’s local plan, as well as each parish’s neighbourhood plan). Whilst the current BDC Development Plan that expires in 2033 is silent on the Airbase, Braintree Council’s updated Local Plan 2033-41 will include a policy that mirrors the provisions of the FWNP in requiring a sustainable and appropriate Master Plan for the Airbase.
The Joint Finchingfield Wethersfield Neighbourhood Plan (FWNP) includes parameters for any future Airbase development, including a small number of houses subject to a demonstrable local housing need and protection and enhancement of landscape and designated and non-designated heritage assets.
Much of the Airbase is also being designated by the FWNP (on a non-statutory basis) as having valued landscape status. This designation has also been applied to roughly 2/3 of the parishes’ land area, following a Landscape assessment produced by an ecological consultant. Valued landscapes are not well defined in the NPPF but it is recognised that they should be protected and enhanced.
The FWNP draft has been sent to BDC and now awaits further consultation and review.
📌Future use of the base: Nature recovery
Following extensive community work and encouragement, the Airbase has now been included in Essex County Council’s Local Nature Recovery Strategy as an area of Strategic Opportunity https://essexnaturepartnership.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/lnrs-june-2025.pdf.
This is important in several ways:
- Provides information that may be a ‘material consideration’ in the planning system
- Helps prioritise areas for nature recovery
- Highlights key areas that development footprints should avoid where possible to maintain opportunities for habitat creation.
Whilst it is not entirely clear how this opportunity will be realised, the NPPF says “where land has been identified as having particular potential for habitat creation or nature recovery within Local Nature Recovery Strategies, proposals (ie development) should contribute to these outcomes.”
The potential for the inclusion of the Airbase in an exemplar nature recovery strategy for North Essex is enhanced by its location at the heart of the North Essex Farm Cluster (Cluster). The Cluster is a large, group of farms covering over 20,000 hectares, predominantly in the Pant valley, who are collaborating with government bodies (including the Environment Agency and Natural England), water companies, wildlife trusts and others to improve the environment and habitats, whilst continuing to grow food.
The River Pant is an important carrier of drinking water to Essex reservoirs and the valley is valued not just for its beauty but its social and artistic heritage (for example, Bardfield artists).
📌Future use of the base: heritage protection
Wethersfield Airbase Scrutiny Committee (WASC) and TFA have funded Place Services (BDC’s own strategic planning consultant) to survey the Airbase for Conservation Area status, recognising its importance from a heritage point of view. That it was the first Airbase to be home to a Tactical Fighter nuclear response in the Cold War and the base is also highlighted by Historic England as one of the best preserved from the Cold War era is getting acknowledgement that it needs to be preserved for future generations. The consultants have recommended that the whole of the Airbase is designated as a Conservation Area, apart from the military housing area which they did not visit, which is a pity.
BDC has supported the next step in the process which is a public consultation on the proposal, again jointly funded by WASC and TFA.
Conservation Areas are given considerable protections under the NPPF and particular protections under the Planning (Listed Building and Conservation Area) Act 1990.
🎋Future of TFA
The Fields Preservation Trust Charitable Incorporated Organisation
There has been much said and proposed about what the future of the Airbase may hold - there is even the likelihood of a Masterplan being put in place by the HO with hopefully input by the Neighbourhood Plan team. However, all of that is intangible and whilst the community may be able to have some influence over what happens, if we really want to determine what happens then we have to own it, or at least as much of it as we can.
To make that tangible, it needs a focal point for these efforts and that is why, at the TFA Annual General Meeting, we proposed establishing a charity. A charitable organisation has a multitude of benefits – obviously the tax benefits it has for donations and donors, as well as opening the doors to a lot of organisations which are happy to look at offering assistance to a charity rather than a residents association or other forms of organisation.
The objectives have been formed to meet the requirements of the Charity Commission (we hope) and so are wider than just targeting the Airbase, which, after all, we do not control as yet.
There are also many other things happening in the area to do with conservation which eventually could tie in with our objectives on the Airbase, so leaving a wider remit makes some sense.
The AGM approved TFA contributing approximately half of its funds (after certain committed expenditure) to the Charity once established - which we intend will be early in the New Year.
It will begin a further focus for our efforts to bring the Airbase back to the community, we look forward to your support.
Draft Documents Below, you will find a summary of the plan. You can download the full document by clicking the button below. View the latest progress Download fhe Reg 15 submission Download the Supporting Evidence Listen to the Podcast Download the appendicies Download the Policies and Actions only....
