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'There is permissible urgency here,' judge says, but grants leave to appeal Suella Braverman has won the first leg of a legal battle over plans to convert a former military base into a camp housing 1,700 asylum seekers. The Home Secretary said the current shortage of accommodation for asylum seekers was an "emergency" to circumvent normal planning permission, and development began at the former RAF Wethersfield without local consultation.
Braintree Borough Council applied for an injunction to stop the scheme and compel the government to apply for planning permission in the usual way, but on Friday a judge ruled that the High Court had no jurisdiction to decide the case.
Judge Waksman said that while he did not have to formally rule on whether the current housing situation for asylum seekers constituted an "emergency" to circumvent refugee land use planning laws, he concluded that: "There is an emergency here permissible".
“It would have found that the Q class applies and that there was no breach of planning control,” he added. "This request should be deleted."
The judge granted Braintree's lawyer's request to take the case to the Court of Appeal, saying the case raised "very important" points of law that "could arise again in the current circumstances".
Noting "imminent plans to develop this site and others", he added: "It is important that local authorities and central government know where they stand as soon as possible."
The 'Q class' rule could allow the government to convert the former RAF base at Wethersfield into a camp housing up to 1,700 asylum seekers, using existing buildings and new 'modular units'.
Ms Braverman's lawyers have confirmed that the same law could be used for similar schemes at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and the former HMP Northeye prison in Sussex.
Braintree Borough Council said it was disappointed with Friday's decision and argued that Wethersfield was an "unsuitable" site, given its remote location and lack of local service capacity.
"We are grateful to the judge for granting the council's appeal request and we will now consider our next steps," a spokesperson added.
Wayne Beglan, the council's lawyer, had argued that the current situation was not an emergency within the meaning of the law used, and that the ministers' drive to use military bases was "cost-driven".
It questioned whether the Home Office's campaign to cut hotel spending "creates an emergency situation within the meaning of [the law] in such a way that all identified procedural safeguards are circumvented."
The court heard that the Home Office planned to support between 120,000 and 140,000 asylum seekers by the end of this year and was "working on estimates of up to 56,000 more people arriving by small boats", which would be a new record.
At Wednesday's hearing, Interior Department attorney Paul Brown KC said Ms Braverman's position was "that the situation is generally an emergency."
He pointed to the increase in Channel crossings, record asylum backlogs, government programs for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees, previous overcrowding at the Manston processing facility and a shortage of hotel spaces after the end of the Covid pandemic.
Brown said there was a "need to find a longer-term solution to what happened in Manston" when thousands of people were illegally detained in the fall and an asylum seeker died of diphtheria.
He argued that the situation "threatens homelessness," which is one of the thresholds for declaring an emergency under planning laws, "if the Secretary of State is unable to provide housing."
Lawyers for Suella Braverman have argued that destitute asylum seekers could be made homeless if she fails to meet her legal obligation to house them due to housing shortages (Danny Lawson/PA)
“If they are vulnerable or deprived, they are more likely to get sick or die,” he added.
"There has been a particular urgency in Manston and there is a very real anticipation that the situation, unless we find a solution, will only get worse."
M. Brown suggested that the hotels be able to withdraw from the contracts of the Minister of the Interior because their affairs are veulent, rendant les demandeurs d'asile qui y vivent sans abri, mais n'a fourni no example de ce what's going on.
He confirmed that the government planned to use the same 'Class Q' planning process for other planned asylum camps, including one at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.
The government announcement last month sparked a furious reaction from Conservative parliamentarians and councils, who say they were not properly consulted and the sites chosen are unsuitable.
Under the separate Leveling and Regeneration Bill, the government is giving itself the power to circumvent normal planning permission for asylum seeker accommodation and other urgent developments of "national importance".
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