Brief update on latest developments

• The current power supply feeding the RAF base is 900kw. The Home Office have requested this be upgraded to 10 MEGA watts.
• Northern Powergrid are unable to do that, however they can upgrade to circa 5-6 MEGA watts, BUT.......This would take £18 million and take 3 years to deliver.
• Yorkshire Water have also confirmed the infrastructure is not capable of meeting the Home Office's intended capacity modeling.
• The Home Office's Director of Asylum Accommodation misled the community and local authority councillors when she confirmed that planning permission had been submitted to the Department of Levelling up to change from an RAF base to an asylum centre. A Freedom of Information request confirmed no planning permission has been submitted.
• All the 3 leading potential Prime Ministers have expressed concern about the plans and promised to review / revoke the plans if they come to power.
• Serco and the Home Office are in conflict with each other over budgets, with serco stating the Home Office must fund the development of the site.
• Despite this, recruitment is ongoing and it is believed Serco are training staff at a nearby facility, Hawk Hills.
• The official line by the UK Home Office is no formal decision has been made to use Linton On Ouse as an Asylum Reception Centre 
• Clause 97 of the levelling up Bill takes away the need for the Government to engage with local authorities when seeking planning permission and allows the Dept of Levelling Up to grant planning permission on their behalf. This bill is going through as we speak and it is under this clause that the government intend to seek the ability to build future Asylum Reception Centres in the future, especially on Crown land i.e MOD bases.
• The official Home Office fact sheet for Linton on Ouse has been amended with key information removed.....there is no longer a maximum stay duration, there is no longer a need to stay on site overnight, there is an acknowledgement that vulnerable people will now be housed at the site, and the Home office have NOT ruled on permanent detention for some refugees.

The whole process has been shambolic from start to finish, cloaked in ambiguity, misleading statements and lack of transparency. The Home Office continue to refuse to collaborate and engage with Hambleton District Council and local authority. Furthermore, Priti Patel has still yet to visit the village/site as suggested she would by her Home Office.

Please, keep writing to your MPs and others in position to lobby against this plan. Whatever way you approach this, anti or pro immigration, the plan is flawed and dangerous.