It has been a busy month of protests and meetings as the Crowborough community has mobilised to fight Government plans to house asylum seekers at the army training camp.
The news that 540 single men would be housed at the camp by the Home Office while their asylum applications are considered, broke just as our last edition was going to print.
In the past month there have been protest marches at the camp and through the town centre, and a non-political residents’ group, Crowborough Shield, has been formed to fight the plans. It has already begun legal proceedings.
Public meetings have been organised by Sussex Weald MP, Nusrat Ghani, and the local Reform Party, and a community meeting organised by Crowborough Town Council and Wealden District Council was often heated and angry.
At that meeting, held at the community centre, there were calls for Wealden District Council leaders to resign. The resignation calls were led by Kim Bailey from Crowborough Shield, who said the community needed proper leadership.
She asked Cllr James Partridge and Cllr Rachel Millward why the district council had declined to support the residents’ legal action, or start its own. The response was the council had been advised against it. Amid cheers and applause from the 300 members of the public attending the meeting at the community centre she said “You must resign. You don’t understand this situation. We need someone who can take the lead and represent this community.”
The Home Office’s Director of Asylum Accommodation, Andrew Larter, took questions but residents were clearly not convinced by his replies or his reassurances. He was booed, and constantly heckled by the audience – some of whom angrily walked out.
Not even Mr Larter’s repeated apology for the way the Home Office had handled the issue and its lack of community engagement was enough to placate the angry audience. There was a standing ovation when Andrew Wilson said to Mr Larter: “This is a disgrace. You have failed this community, and you have put us at risk.”
At the protests and at the public meetings, concerns have been raised about the impact the proposals would have on local services, how schools and children would be protected, the security of the site, why the asylum seekers could not be detained, the effect on cadets who use the camp, and the impact such a large group of men would have on a community with few urban services.
Crowborough Town Council has also opposed the Govt’s proposal (see page 20) and said it is continuing to engage closely with partners and recognises the concerns the announcement has raised within the community. It said it is actively seeking clear and accurate information on behalf of Crowborough.
Wealden District Council has again called on the Home Office to visit the camp and has accused the Government of failing “to provide a single substantive reply to any of the questions and issues we have raised.”
In their latest letter, the leaders of the council, Cllrs Partridge and Millward wrote: “Please will you and your officials engage meaningfully with us and local residents to understand the strengths of our collective concerns.
“We therefore write, once again, to ask you to meet with us urgently to discuss this situation. And whilst, as stated above, we think it essential you visit our town, if you are not prepared to come here then we are fully prepared to come to Parliament to meet with you.”
Meanwhile, Rotherfield Parish Council has also written to the Home Office Minister, Alex Norris, to raise concerns raised by villagers about the impact the plan would have on local health services, the need for additional policing, the security of residents, the suitability of the site, the lack of security, and more.
Our MP, Nusrat Ghani, has also been critical of what she says is a lack of leadership from Wealden District Council and was joined by Kim Bailey from Crowborough Shield in a meeting with Home Office Minister, Alex Norris. Afterwards she said: “We made it clear that we are not confident in their decision or the lack of leadership at Wealden District Council.”
Ms Ghani, who says the training camp had previously been deemed unsuitable to house asylum seekers, has also launched a petition which she is urging residents to sign. www.nusghani.org.uk/NoAsylumHousing
In the forefront of the opposition is Crowborough Shield, which has launched a fundraising campaign to pay for the legal action it is beginning against the Home Office and what it describes as the “unsafe and unlawful” proposal to use the camp to house asylum seekers.
This residents’ group has amassed more than 2,700 followers on its Facebook page in the short time since it was set up. At the time of writing its fundraising campaign had raised more than £28,000. For more information on Crowborough Shield and the crowd justice campaign “Crowborough Says No” visit: https://crowboroughshield.com/
The Home Office’s plan to use the Army camp has attracted widespread media coverage in the national newspapers, and has also caused a stir in Parliament where almost 40 questions have been tabled by MPs demanding clarification and answers from the Home Office.
The Home Office has said it does not have a “go live” date for the proposal and is still completing assessments to ensure it was “safe, compliant, and legal”.