🛑 URGENT: Sign the Petition to Stop the RAF Barnham Development 🛑

I have started an online petition demanding that West Suffolk Council and local leaders! 

rejects the proposed large-scale accommodation plans at RAF Barnham. Our rural community simply does not have the infrastructure to support this.

CAMPAIGN UPDATE:   RAF Barnham Heritage and Conservation Group is promoting the importance of protecting  our heritage wildlife and conservation status!  Building this mass development will cause irreparable damage to a highly protected site buildings and wildlife.

 Once paved over or altered by hasty development, this history is lost forever. Please join group keep sharing this petition to show how many are opposing this 

 Supporters,

First, I want to thank every single one of you. Our petition has sent shockwaves through local government. Following the massive turnout at the Thetford Town Council meeting and the unanimous vote by West Suffolk Council declaring this base "wholly unsuitable," it is clear our community stands united.

However, to win this battle against the Home Office, we must fight them on every front so  they cannot legally ignore: Statutory Heritage and Environmental Law.

 The RAF Barnham Heritage and Conservation Group has been set up 
Please join and share barnhams Cold War history 

 

Why We Are Shifting Our Strategy

While infrastructure and community safety remain critical pillars of our argument, the government can try to bypass them using "emergency" planning powers. What they cannot bypass are strict national laws protecting Scheduled Ancient Monuments and international conservation zones.

By organizing under this professional banner, we are bringing together historians, environmentalists, and legal experts to defend the base on two unyielding grounds:

1. Serious "Harm to Setting" of a Scheduled Monument: The base holds the Atomic Bomb Store on Thetford Heath, a highly protected Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade II* listed Cold War asset. UK planning law dictates that a monument’s quiet, stark, and isolated "setting" is legally protected. Building a high-density, 1,250-person modular residential camp directly next to it entirely destroys the historic context of this rare landmark.
2. Violating the Breckland Special Protection Area (SPA): RAF Barnham sits directly inside a strict ecological SPA and Buffer Zone designed to protect fragile heathlands and endangered wildlife like the stone-curlew bird. These exact environmental restrictions have historically blocked housing developers from expanding here. The government must not be allowed a free pass to cause ecological harm.

 

Our Immediate Next Steps

As the newly formed RAF Barnham Heritage and Conservation Group, we are initiating the following direct actions:

Formal Historic England Appeal: We are submitting a comprehensive report to Historic England to demand an urgent heritage assessment on the "harm to setting" of the atomic bomb stores.
Wildlife Trust Collaboration: We are reaching out to regional conservation and wildlife groups to trigger formal scrutiny over sewage, light pollution, and ecological disturbance to Thetford Heath.
Preparing for Public Consultation: The Home Office is currently conducting a feasibility study. The moment a formal planning portal opens, our group will provide all of you with a pre-drafted, copy-and-paste legal checklist of heritage and conservation objections to flood West Suffolk Council’s planning desk.

#Historic England

#natural England 

 

How You Can Help Right Now

Please share this update far and wide. If you have a background in local history, environmental planning, wildlife conservation, or planning law, please leave a comment on this petition or reach out directly—we need your expertise on our core committee.

We are no longer just a protest; we are the official guardians of Barnham’s irreplaceable history and environment.

And supporting local communities with concerns 

Thank you for your continued support. Let's save Barnham Camp

Under Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the council has a strict legal obligation to ensure community safety and prevent anti-social behaviour. Placing a massive, isolated development on an unlit rural site alongside the busy A134 corridor—with zero public transport or pavements—completely fails this legal duty.

Our local GPs, dental surgeries, and emergency services are already operating at capacity. We cannot allow this to go through without a formal objection.

👇 PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE 

PROTECT OUR COMMUNITY • ENFORCE SECTION 17

The Ministry of Defence has targeted RAF Barnham for an unsuitable, large-scale development to house asylum seekers on our border. We must stand together to demand that local authorities fulfill their legal duties, protect local infrastructure, and preserve our rural community.

 

WHY WE SAY NO:

❌ Section 17 Legal Breach: Under Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the local planning authority has a strict statutory duty to prevent crime and disorder in our area. This isolated, unlit site lacks the policing infrastructure to guarantee community safety.
❌ Overburdened Public Services: Our local GPs, schools, and emergency services are already stretched to the limit and cannot cope with a sudden influx.
❌ Isolation & Poor Infrastructure: RAF Barnham is a remote military site with zero adequate transport links, making it entirely unsuitable for large-scale housing.
❌ Zero Local Consultation: Decisions are being forced upon residents without transparency or respect for our villages.    

We need   west Suffolk council  to consider these concerns democratic.services@westsuffolk.gov.uk