Council waits for ruling on complaint about migrant plans for Dambuster airfield

Council bosses are waiting for a ruling after telling a High Court judge that Government plans to use land that once formed part of one of England’s most famous RAF bases to house asylum seekers should be quashed.

West Lindsey District Council, which is based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, says a decision to use land at the disused RAF Scampton airfield – where the Dambusters were based during the Second World War – is unlawful.

Mrs Justice Thornton finished overseeing a hearing at the High Court in London on Wednesday and said she would deliver a ruling on a date to be fixed.

RAF Scampton court case
People take part in a protest in Lincoln against the Government’s plan to house migrants at RAF Scampton (PA)

A local resident, Gabriel Clarke-Holland, is also challenging plans for Wethersfield.

Ministers says claims should be dismissed.

Lawyers representing councils have made complaints about ministers’ use of planning rules.

They say ministers cannot rely on “permitted development rights” because there is no “emergency”.

Lawyers have also raised concerns about migrants being housed for longer than an initially envisaged 12 months.

Home Office ministers and Levelling up, Housing and Communities ministers are fighting the claims.

Scampton court case
A Lancaster bomber similar to those used by the Dambusters, which were based at RAF Scampton during the Second World War (Joe Giddens/PA)

Led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the raid targeted three dams in the industrialised Ruhr region of Germany using the “bouncing bomb” invented by Barnes Wallis.

They successfully breached the Mohne and Eder dams, while the Sorpe was damaged.

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