North Yorkshire councillors back Linton-on-Ouse fight

Councillors voted unanimously to back a motion for council leader, Councillor Carl Les, to contact Minister for the Border Security and Asylum Alex Norris outlining their objections to the plan.

The vote was taken at the authority’s full council meeting at County Hall in Northallerton yesterday (Wednesday, July 15).

It comes after the Home Office revealed plans to house up to 3,750 people at Linton, and former RAF bases at Bicester in Oxfordshire and Barnham in Suffolk, with about 1,200 single men potentially located at the North Yorkshire site.

Cllr Les said there was a “sense of urgency” because the government had already begun its due diligence process.

“It’s important that we make our views known on behalf of the residents that this council represents.

“Let’s be clear, this is not about illegal migration. It’s not even about the policy of housing asylum seekers — I hope we can all agree that they should be housed safely and with dignity.”

But he added: “As was decided by the Home Office four years ago, this is not the right location for many reasons.”

RAF Linton-on-Ouse. Photo: Google.

Councillor Malcolm Taylor, executive member for highways and transportation and member for the Huby and Tollerton division, which includes the former base, said Linton was still the wrong place, as it had been when a similar proposal was put forward in 2022.

He added: “If anything, the compelling case is now stronger not to house them in that rural village than it was back in 2022.

“I fully recognise that government policy is to relocate asylum seekers from hotels across the country into disused former military bases, and I can see some logic behind that.

“However, the site that they choose to relocate those asylum seekers from hotels has to be suitable for communities and for asylum seekers themselves.”

Councillor Stuart Parsons, leader of the North Yorkshire Independents group on the council, also backed the motion and suggested members should be prepared to stand outside the base to stop government access if necessary.

“I think it’d be rather funny if we all chained together outside Linton-on-Ouse airbase,” he said.

“I don’t particularly want to be attached to certain people, but I will swallow my pride.”

Councillor Michelle Donohue-Moncrieff, an unaffiliated independent member, supported the motion, but added: “Where are you suggesting is suitable? And can you find me the resident across North Yorkshire or across this country who wants to live near such a site?”

Reform councillor, John Mann, called on the authority to go further and press the government for a “fundamental reform of our broken asylum system”, adding: “North Yorkshire residents deserve a council that is prepared to challenge the national policy not merely its local consequences.”

In response, Councillor Simon Myers, executive member culture, arts and housing, said: “I’m afraid everything becomes an opportunity for people to start their election campaigns — I wish they wouldn’t. Let’s conduct the business of the council.”

Councillor Steve Shaw-Wright, leader of the Labour group, also urged councillors not to debate national immigration policy, before suggesting that it was former Conservative minister and now Reform MP, Robert Jenrick, who opened hotels to house asylum seekers.

He added: “We have to accept that when migrants come, they don’t come here for an easy life. They are leaving really, really terrible situations, a lot of those caused by us, and we have to accept that.”