Protests will resume if Government ruins £300m RAF Scampton regeneration plan, says campaigner
Residents will resume protests if the Government ruins a £300m regeneration plan, a campaigner has warned.
The former RAF Scampton site remains in limbo, nine months since the Home Office abandoned plans to use it for asylum seeker housing.
West Lindsey District Council is hoping to buy it to unlock millions of pounds of investment, but is still waiting for the Government to choose a buyer.
The proposed development with Scampton Holdings aims to make the site a key player in aerospace, satellite and defence technology, with claims that it would add £300 million to the local economy.
The Home Office is currently valuing the site, but hasn’t openly marketed it yet.
Sarah Carter, leader of the Save Our Scampton campaign, said locals won’t be happy until the council has the keys to the site.
“The delays are so frustrating after everything we’ve been through,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
“We fought with the last Home Office over stopping the housing plans, now we’re fighting with this one over what to do with it.
“It’s been nearly two and a half years since this first started, but we’re not giving up.
“If anyone else tries to buy it, we’re quite prepared to pick up right where we left off, protesting at the main gate.
“The (regeneration) plan has sat there for years. There’s the prospect of hundreds of jobs and much better local infrastructure.
“Sadly, the delays mean RAF Scampton now looks neglected and abandoned. The runway will probably need severe maintenance.
“We want these years of heartache and upset to mean something – they need to crack on.”
Ian Knowles, the chief executive of West Lindsey District Council, told a committee on Tuesday (June 10) that they were still waiting to hear from the Home Office.
“We are still hoping to make it happen. The developer is still in the wings, and we have been talking to potential users once it happens,” he said.
“How and when will be down to the Government process.”
He offered assurances about what would happen if a different buyer were chosen.
“Any (developer) must comply with our Local Plan, so it isn’t as though they can dump a lot of houses on there – they must come up with a suitable masterplan,” he said.
The Government says it is selling the former airbase on the open market to claw back money lost from the abandoned housing plans.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “This Government inherited an asylum system under unprecedented strain, including plans to house asylum seekers in RAF Scampton, which ran up spiralling costs of over £60 million between March 2023 and September 2024.
“We have taken swift action to review and discontinue the use of RAF Scampton as asylum accommodation, in order to save the taxpayer millions in projected site costs.
“We must comply with market regulation of public land, rather than just handing it to the council. The sale of the site is taking place in line with the process for disposing of Crown Land.”
