All challenges against government plans to use former RAF bases to house asylum seekers have been dismissed at the High Court.
West Lindsey District Council, Lincolnshire, claimed the government’s plans to use the disused RAF Scampton airfield, near Lincoln, were unlawful.
Braintree District Council, based in Braintree, Essex, along with a private resident, made similar complaints in relation to plans for land that once formed part of RAF Wethersfield.
High Court judge, Mrs Justice Thornton, dismissed the three claims for a judicial review.
At a previous hearing at the High Court, lawyers representing the councils complained about ministers’ use of planning rules.
They argued ministers could not rely on “permitted development rights” for the plans because there was no “emergency”.
Lawyers also raised concerns about migrants being housed for longer than an initially envisaged 12 months.
Home Office ministers and Levelling Up, Housing and Communities ministers contested the claims.
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RAF Scampton is the former home of the Red Arrows aerobatics display team and the Dambusters – the squadron that carried out one of the Second World War’s most famous air raids.
Nineteen Lancaster bombers, crewed by 133 airmen, took part in the raid – named Operation Chastise – on the night of 16-17 May 1943.
Led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, the raid targeted three dams in the industrialised Ruhr region of Germany using the “bouncing bomb” invented by Barnes Wallis.
They successfully breached the Mohne and Eder dams, and the Sorpe was damaged.
