In line with that, it has decided that it will not be pursuing or supporting any further legal action, it confirmed on Tuesday (3 March).
WDC has been advised that to pursue a new Judicial Review against the Home Office is unlikely to achieve anything of practical value and that a claim could potentially be counterproductive. The council's view is it would be morally wrong to stay silent about this legal advice because to do so would raise false hopes and would likely be a waste of taxpayers' money.
The council statement said it has always been strongly opposed to the use of the site for this purpose and participated in the recent court hearing as an interested party, providing supporting evidence to ensure that the court was fully informed of local impacts and procedural history.
Crowborough Shield's claim was rejected because the judge deemed them to have 'jumped the gun' by starting the claim before the Home Office had made a decision.
In its advice, WDC's King's Counsel team advised that whilst there are 'arguable errors of law in relation to the Habitats Regulations and the EIA Regulations and recreational pressure on the Ashdown Forest,' these are easily corrected by Government. As the premature claim gave Government notice of these errors the council now expects them to be corrected before any new claim could reach the court.
Even if the court upholds a Judicial Review on those grounds the likely impact would be to allow the Government to re-take its decision and potentially start the 1`2-month clock again; meaning the camp would be open for even longer.
Crucially the KC team has not identified any legal argument that would stop the Secretary of State from using the Camp for asylum accommodation in principle. The team have also advised that there is no legally arguable basis on which the council could challenge the Government's decision to not allow the council to take planning enforcement action.
They advise there is little or no prospect of Wealden successfully arguing that there is no emergency, to justify the use of emergency planning powers by the Home Office, this having been accepted by the High Court in previous cases.
Finally if WDC brought a claim it would not benefit from the Arhus costs cap, which limits claimants' exposure to the Government's legal costs (and would be available to Crowborough Shield) because the caps do not apply when the claimant is a public body. To risk public money paying the Government's uncapped legal costs when advised that a claim is likely to fail, they say would be irresponsible and morally wrong. WDC will continue to work with the Home Office and other partners to minimise any further impacts on the community.
Leader of the Council, Cllr James Partridge said: "While this comes as a major disappointment to us all it would be wrong of the council to remain silent about its legal advice. We all wanted to stop the Home Office as this camp is good for no-one. The Home Office has failed Crowbrough. But to keep fighting a legal challenge that is doomed to fail helps nobody. Throwing good money after bad is simply wrong. We must all now turn our attention to making sure that everyone feels safe and secure. We will continue to press the Home Office to do their job properly and to engage better with all of us."
A spokesperson for Crowborough Shield explained that funds totalling £100,000 had been raised to fund a challenge to the legality of the camp. And the ruling is described as 'a critical blow' to the campaign to allow the camp to be used to house migrants, some of whom moved into the site last month.
Funds were needed by last Wednesday, as after that date there was no further opportunity to challenge the decision to use the camp. They needed another £140,000 to review every document that was received from the disclosure and prepare the best possible case. At the time of writing it has not yet been revealed whether or not the money has been made available.
The two major groups fighting the decision to accommodate migrants at the camp are Crowborough Says No and Crowborough Shield.