PM to 'listen carefully' to Linton asylum concerns

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will "listen carefully" to the "legitimate concerns" over plans to house asylum seekers at a former RAF base in North Yorkshire.

The Home Office is considering using RAF Linton-on-Ouse to accommodate up to 1,200 asylum seekers, although no final decision has been made.

County mayor David Skaith this week called for a meeting with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood over the plan, while a police chief raised concerns over force resources.

Burnham said he would "make sure the Home Office are fully accountable to people in North Yorkshire", adding: "But it's also the case that all parts of the country need to do what they can to deal with the overall challenge."

Skaith said he and Deputy Mayor Jo Coles had written to the home secretary to arrange a meeting to "discuss the plans further", suggesting the site be used for housebuilding instead of as an asylum centre.

He said: "I raised it with the prime minister a couple of weeks ago as well, about the challenges of the site and also the opportunities.

"I have responsibility for growing the economy and creating a region that works for everyone. A site of that size is never going to stay empty, I'm pressing for it to be used for some of the housing that our region so badly needs."

North Yorkshire Police's temporary Deputy Chief Constable Catherine Clarke said the force was preparing for "regular, sustained and significant protest activity" at the RAF base if plans were approved.

She said: "Should this occur in North Yorkshire, it would be inevitable that resources would be drawn from across the force and would represent a challenge."

Meanwhile, campaigners the Linton-on-Ouse Action Group called for an "urgent, jointly resourced action plan" to be put together by public bodies and other stakeholders "before any proposal is submitted for planning".

The group said: "This is not about race or religion; this is about a small, rural community being given city-sized problems overnight but not the resources to match."

Speaking from Number 10 North in Manchester, Burnham said police resourcing "needs to be looked at and that's something for the Home Office to work through with North Yorkshire and the mayor and others to see what resources can be found to make sure that people can have that sense of safety and that things are being properly done".

The PM said: "We do need to deal with this issue as fairly as we can across the country.

"But I'm not going to sit here and just deny the concerns that people will have. They will have concerns. But, you know, I dealt with those as mayor of Greater Manchester.

"Greater Manchester has been the largest area for the dispersal of asylum seekers and we worked with those issues when I was the mayor here. And I will work with people in a similar way as the prime minister."

When the policy to use the bases was announced earlier this year, Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Labour "should be putting illegal immigrants on a plane home rather than messing around with military camps and hotels".

He said Labour "will not do what is needed to tear down the barriers to deportation, and without deportation, there is no deterrent".

A Home Office spokesperson said earlier: "The government is working on a fairer distribution of asylum accommodation across the country, with over £1bn saved in costs since the election.

"This includes closing all asylum hotels and moving to alternative accommodation, including former military sites.

"These are designed to be self-contained, with 24/7 security and CCTV, to reduce the impact on local communities."

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