Furious villagers are preparing to take the Home Office to court over plans to increase the number of asylum seekers living at a former airfield by more than 60 per cent.
Families in the Essex village of Wethersfield say the proposal would lead to them being outnumbered by the camp’s residents.
RAF Wethersfield is set to expand from 766 migrants to 1,245 and be used beyond the original plan of 2027.
That is despite repeated vows by ministers that they will ‘stop the boats’ and secure Britain’s borders.
Villagers living near the site say their life has been ‘hell’ since it opened in June 2023 amid claims of antisocial behaviour and an atmosphere of ‘intimidation’.
They describe being woken by noise from the camp and cars dropping and picking up migrants in the early hours.
Others claimed to have seen men defecating in nearby roads and fields.
Samantha Clarke-Holland, who lives yards from the camp, was forced to take her detached £895,000 home off the market after failing to get a single viewing.
She is now considering joining others and councils to bring fresh legal action against the Home Office in light of the expansion plans.
The 59-year-old mother said: ‘We’ve previously taken the Home Office to court with a judicial review.
Families in the Essex village of Wethersfield say the proposal would lead to them being outnumbered by residents of the camp
RAF Wethersfield is set to expand from 766 migrants to 1,245 and be used beyond the original plan of 2027
Samantha Clarke-Holland, who lives yards from the camp, was forced to take her detached £895,000 home off the market after failing to get a single viewing
‘If we got the support of the local council and other locals, we’d do it again.
‘This government comes up with new slogans and gimmicks all the time like stop the boats and one in one out, but they have not worked.
‘We live directly opposite from the consequences of their failures.
‘I’d be up for anything to stop this. I’d be happy to take fresh legal action with the support of others.’
Mrs Clarke-Holland said she would be looking to challenge a Special Development Order which grants temporary planning permission and bypasses the local council authority.
She added: ‘It’s outrageous the government can do this while bypassing planning laws and ignoring local people. We’re being punished because they cannot stop the route problem, which is the boats in the first place.
‘When they arrive, they arrive in hundreds everyday. This is extending it by over 400. So that’s basically a big day of crossings. Where else will they go?
‘It’s a huge mess. We’re the ones to suffer. The noise is constant. It’s screaming and shouting. We get cars turning up doing god knows what at all times.
‘It’s suspicious. We police the site ourselves. We’ve seen some people climb in, God knows why.’
Mrs Clarke-Holland is unsurprised by the lack of interest in her house, asking: ‘Who would want to live opposite that? It’s so sad.
‘They even defecate in the fields around here. We’ve done the right thing and worked hard and now we have a property that basically isn’t worth what we put in.
‘We didn’t get a single viewer. Who would want to live 20 yards from an asylum centre? Our house now has no value.’
Couple Simone Sutcliffe, 79, and partner John Adams, 78, also live opposite and are unhappy with the expansion plans.
Couple Simone Sutcliffe, 79, and partner John Adams, 78, also live opposite and are unhappy with the expansion plans
Another section of the camp, which was used by the RAF and United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War
Mr Adams said: ‘We knew that’s what they wanted to do all along. But we were never told. We’re ignored.
‘These lovely houses now have no value. But we’ve all worked hard all our lives. It’s wrong.
‘We have the most stunning views here. Before they moved in, it was so quiet as well.
‘But they make so much noise. And so do the staff. We are constantly woken at 4am by the sound of the gate slamming open and closed as the staff go in and change their shift.’
Ms Sutcliffe added: ‘Nobody listens to us. We’re ignored.’
Villager Alex Mason, 56, said he would support any legal plans to try and block the move.
The building contractor said: ‘It’s clear they have it all sewed up and the Home Office will do whatever they want.
‘It’s sad to know, for certain, that despite being the ones paying the taxes to fund all of this, they don’t care about us.
‘That’s actually gutting when you think about it. It’s hell here. The migrants outnumber us.
‘What happened if we all stopped paying our taxes? We’d be put in prison. But they break the law by coming here illegally, and get rewarded with the accommodation.’
One gripe locals have is constant bus visits from the centre into nearby Essex towns such as Braintree.
Mr Mason added: ‘They have this VIP service. There’s no consequence. Quite the opposite, they get rewarded. I’d do anything to support legal action.’
Another local said they feared the site would now house migrants for the next ten years with even bigger capacity.
They said: ‘Why stop here? There’s nothing to stop it carrying on for years and years, a decade maybe. It’s a national disgrace.’
The Government wants to increase Wethersfield’s capacity to make up for the closure of 20 more asylum hotels.
But Councillor Peter Harris, Leader of Essex County Council, said: ‘I have a simple message for the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood – Enough is enough. We are not a dumping ground for the result of a failing asylum system.
‘Closing hotels is one thing but shifting the impact onto Essex communities is unacceptable and this is what will result from this increase.
‘Those impacts are felt by people in towns and cities miles from Wethersfield itself – in Braintree, Colchester, and Chelmsford – because that is where the men living at Wethersfield are bussed to and from every week.
An aerial view of some of the accommodation blocks at the site in Essex
‘As a consequence, our police are having to deal with incidents of illegal migrants with nothing to do with their time but hang around town centres and get into trouble, committing numerous crimes, behaving anti-socially and harassing people including women and girls.
‘This stretches police resources as well as our own public health and mental health capacity.’
Previous plans to house up to 1,500 asylum seekers at RAF Linton-on-Ouse were abandoned in 2022 following outcry and a legal challenge from the local council.
Last month, ministers announced the closure of another 20 hotels where migrants were being housed, including the Bell Hotel in Epping.
The Bell Hotel came under scrutiny last year after Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman just eight days after arriving via a small boat.
Labour said the hotel closures would save taxpayers £170million this financial year and claimed overall asylum costs had already been reduced by nearly £1billion.
It has pledged to stop using asylum hotels by the next election.
The number of asylum seekers being housed temporarily in UK hotels has fallen to its lowest level since data was first reported in 2022, according to Home Office figures.
There were 20,885 people staying in hotel accommodation while they were awaiting a decision on their asylum claims at the end of March, down 35 per cent year-on-year from 32,326.
The total had climbed as high as 56,018 at the end of September 2023.
The Home Office has been contacted for comment.
