Bexhill campaigners hold silent protest against government's asylum centre plans at Northeye

On Monday (July 31), a Rother District Council meeting was briefly adjourned following a silent protest by residents who oppose proposals to house asylum seekers at Northeye, a disused prison and training centre.

During the meeting, a group of around 13 protestors stood and held signs in the public gallery, prompting council chairman Vicki Cook to adjourn the meeting and ask for the gallery to be cleared.

The protestors included Nigel Jacklin, Bexhill town councillor and leader of the No to Northeye protest group. Speaking after the meeting, he said: “We’ve spoken to seven councillors and their universal response has been that they need to wait for the Home Office to provide details before they can say anything.

“It should be perfectly clear to Rother that residents don’t want the camp. There is nothing preventing the council from objecting to proposals; waiting for the full details risks letting the camp become a done deal.”

Mr Jacklin went on to say he had planned to present a petition asking Rother to oppose the camp, but was told by the council that 10 working days notice was needed with a minimum of 1,500 signatures. He said the group is now working on collecting signatures in time for the next Full Council meeting in September.

He said: “We shouldn’t really need a petition to get Rother to speak out on this.

“The council is making a big mistake by letting the Home Office take the lead. They just need to tell the Home Office [that] residents do not want the camp. They do not need to wait for full details.”

In June, Rother District Council attempted to intervene in an appeal by Braintree District Council against the High Court’s decision to not grant an injunction to stop plans for a similar centre in Essex. That appeal was lost.

The council has also said that the Northeye plans are still currently just proposals, with no decisions yet made as to the use of the site, the numbers or who might be accommodated.

It is understood that the Northeye centre was initially expected to open in September, but the Home Office amended its plans in June, with no definite date now set. The Home Office has previously said the centre would house ‘non-detained’ single, male asylum seekers.

In a statement issued at the time, a Home Office spokesperson said: “If a decision is made to progress using the site for non-detained asylum accommodation, we will undertake works at the site and only after the site is legally compliant and ready for use would we start to accommodate asylum seekers.

“We would increase capacity in phases over several months to reach an operating capacity of c.1200 people, regularly reviewing the numbers and use of the site.”

According to the government’s website: “Bexhill has been identified as an alternative to hotels as a site that is suitable for the purposes of asylum seeker accommodation. Alternative large sites such as surplus military land and this site at Bexhill are not only more affordable for taxpayers than hotels, but also more manageable and orderly than hotels for communities.”