Linton On Ouse asylum centre: Home Office officials jeered at village meeting as residents say they are "collateral damage"

More than 100 protestors chanted “Wrong Plan, Wrong Place,” ahead of a parish council meeting in the village attended by several civil servants and managers from security firm Serco, in a bid to allay a raft of concerns about launching the centre at the former RAF Linton on Ouse base on May 31.

They were met with cries of “shame” and jeers as they told villagers that they had considered other sites for the asylum centre, but had chosen the village as the most suitable.

Villagers in Linton-on-Ouse were not consulted on the plan before the Home Office announced it earlier this year, but have now been told they will be able to attend “drop-in” sessions at the new site after the Home Office admitted it was “on the back foot.”

One impassioned villager told the Home Office she felt they were being treated as “collateral damage.”

Another, speaking through tears, told officials that she would no longer feel safe walking her dog once the asylum seekers arrive.

“I don’t think you are grasping the concept of what you’re doing to our village,” she said.

The civil servants, whose gave their first names, told the meeting they planned to create facilities on the former air base and while the asylum seekers would be primarily on site, they were looking at travel arrangements so the non-detained asylum seekers could travel to York. One official told the meeting: “We are really keen that we don’t impact on the local community. We recognise that you feel you haven’t been engaged fully and that you don’t feel that you are left out in the cold and that you are comfortable what is happening on the site.”

When asked about why the site had been selected, an official faced heckling as he stated the former base had been judged “feasible”, without making it clear what criteria had been used to select the isolated village. He added the site would provide the asylum seekers with three meals a day and recreational activities.

Residents were told the site would feature a state of the art security system, including CCTV, security guards on the front gates and roaming patrols, but that the asylum seekers would be free to come and go as they pleased.

Chief inspector David Hunter said North Yorkshire Police intended to have two officers on patrol in the village, from 8.30am to midnight every day, but the force would respond to “changes in demand”.

Olga Matthias of the Linton Action Group said: “There has been no consultation, no communication. The Home Office are a law unto themselves.”