Council strikes deal with Home Office to end bitter legal dispute over airfield

West Lindsey District Council has reached an agreement in principle with the Home Office over the future of RAF Scampton, putting an end to a long-running row over plans to accommodate asylum seekers on the site.

The district council said the agreement will see the Government use just 10% of the airfield, allowing the council to protect its £300m regeneration project for the site.

The Home Office will also reduce the number of people temporarily housed on the site from 2,000 to 800.

West Lindsey said part of the agreement also involves working with the Home Office to deliver a detailed legal framework to provide the council and its Preferred Development Partner, Scampton Holdings Limited, with the arrangements necessary to finalise the required contracts and unlock its investment and regeneration plan.

The agreement ends a fight over the airfield’s future, which saw the council pursue an injunction, planning enforcement notices and judicial review.

Its now-abandoned judicial review bid sought to challenge the Home Office's use of a Special Development Order (SDO), a type of secondary legislation allowing the Home Secretary to grant planning permission to build asylum seeker accommodation on the site.

RAF Scampton is famous for being home to the Dambusters, a Royal Air Force squadron which ran daring bombing raids on German dams during the Second World War.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) closed the airfield in 2018 as part of cost-cutting measures, leading to the council formally expressing an interest in acquiring the site in April 2022.

In March 2023, the council agreed to purchase the site from the MoD.

However, in that same month, the Home Office announced it was set to accommodate asylum seekers on the site.

The council's plans for the site include continuing to use Scampton as an operational airfield and protecting its heritage assets, which include Grade II-listed buildings related to the Dambusters.

Two listed hangars, the listed officers' mess and Wing Commander Guy Gibson's dog's grave will be transferred to the district council once a legal agreement is in place, with the remaining listed hangars being transferred in 2026.

The Home Office has also committed to working with the council and Historic England to protect the heritage of the site.

Leader of West Lindsey District Council, Cllr Trevor Young said the agreement was the culmination of weeks of negotiations with the Home Office.

Cllr Young said: "The specific details of the agreement are still being finalised, but this agreement paves the way forward for the short-term and long-term use of the site.

"This agreement provides the principles by which we can collaborate to unlock our investment and regeneration plan by working with the Home Office through a shared use proposal."

Sally Grindrod-Smith, Director of Planning, Regeneration and Communities at West Lindsey District Council, said: "Our strategy to challenge every detail and hold the Home Office to account has successfully delivered the conditions in which the opportunity to collaborate and deliver a temporary, shared use of the site now exists.

"This includes a significant reduction in operating capacity of the asylum accommodation centre, a vastly reduced Home Office footprint, and a suite of conditions on the Special Development Order designed to mitigate the impact of the development."

Adam Carey