Bexhill asylum seeker centre objector joins national protest

Protestors gathered in Portland Port in Dorset, Scampton in Lincolnshire and Wethersfield in Essex.

A ninth protest is scheduled in Bexhill on Saturday July 22. The Home Office is proposing to turn Northeye, a former prison and training centre in Bexhill, into a centre for up to 1,200 asylum seekers.

This week also sees a permission hearing for a Judicial Review challenging the use of this legislation in the High Court. This challenge is being put forward by the relevant local councils in Essex and Lincolnshire (Basildon and West Lindsey) and a private individual who lives near the Wethersfield site.

No To Northeye campaign group founder Nigel Jacklin went to Wethersfield on Saturday. He has also spoken to Scampton campaigners. Nigel says he is optimistic that the Judicial Review will go ahead saying it is ‘important for both residents and councils’.

He said: “There may well be 30 other sites where this legislation could be used and you never know what emergency the Home Office and the government might create next.”

Rother District Council took part in the recent Injunction hearing, which, according to Mr Jacklin took care to avoid addressing the use of emergency legislation to make sure that could be covered in the Judicial Review.

According to sources close to the Judicial Review it will seek to address both the question of whether there is an emergency and whether the Home Office carried out sufficient studies and surveys on the impact of an Asylum Centre in the middle of nowhere with little infrastructure to support it.

A Judicial Review is a legal means of challenging a decision taken by an official body. As a final decision on use of the Northeye site has yet to be taken, Mr Jacklin explained that such a legal challenge cannot yet be taken here. His view is that if a decision is taken to go ahead with the site Rother District Council would be best placed to join in with the existing Judicial Review. This will mean the hearing can draw on the extensive work the local District Council have already done relating to the impact of development at Northeye given its proximity to SSSI and RAMSAR status land on Pevensey Levels. In the meantime local people will be keeping up the pressure to say no to the camp in the hope that the Home Office will decide to abandon its plans to use it as an asylum seeker accommodation centre, said Mr Jacklin.

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