02/07/2026
Our statement to York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority; Today we are off to County Hall, alongside Mal Taylor. To raise our concerns and gather further regional support:
"In 2022, the Linton Action Group led a positive campaign. Alongside Local and National Partners, we proved this was the Wrong Plan in the Wrong Place. After wasting £22.9 million, the Home Office plans were abandoned due to numerous technical, unworkable issues and being unable to secure sufficient staffing.
The current plans are vague. But are functionally identical to the plans that failed in 2022. The Home Office is proposing upward of 3,750 asylum-seeking men spread over three sites. With a quoted 80-day turnaround, this equates to roughly 5,700 individuals passing through a village of under a 1000 residents, every single year.
These plans have been criticised by all parties, the current Prime Minister in 2022, described them as “chaotic” and “behind the curve.” The plans have not changed.
But what has changed in Linton since 2022 is that, as a community, we have fought to grow and recover from the closure of the RAF base. We have encouraged, with your support, commercial and residential uses for the site. We have welcomed the camp and surrounding areas into consultation for the revised Local Plan. We have supported the delivery of 166 new homes, bringing young families back into our community. Our village pub has reopened. Our local shop has prospective buyers. Our school is moving to a more sustainable footing.
This development is already threatening that recovery. The new neighbourhoods have moved the edge of our village right up to the camp gates. More so than before, this is not an Asylum Centre on an isolated RAF base. It is an Asylum Centre nestled deeply within a thriving, developing village. The impact is immediate; families who had secured school places are already rescinding their contracts to move in.
Linton-on-Ouse is materially different from any site the Home Office currently uses or proposes. It is the only site where less than 4 years ago, joint assessments by the Home Office, the MoD, Police, Fire Services, Local Authority and Health concluded this plan was completely unworkable.
And this is where it becomes a region-wide crisis. Our local infrastructure and resources cannot be called upon to deal with the impact of an already ill-fated plan. The resulting strain will drain resources from our entire county system. Linton’s limited resources and infrastructure will be pulled away from supporting the continued development of our region and toward a plan imposed by the Home Office.
We ask you to recognize that a failure here becomes a burden for the whole region and help us stop this unworkable plan before millions more pounds are wasted."
