Questions over future funding for policing RAF Scampton
Some £1.8 million of Home Office funding is on its way to Lincolnshire Police
Questions are arising over the viability of having a dedicated set of officers to police RAF Scampton for the length of time asylum seekers are there - without any further additional funding.
It comes as the force has already recruited extra staff specifically for the role - in anticipation of arrivals. Though the site has since been permitted to be used as accommodation for an extended 3 years.
Some £1.8 million of Home Office funding is now on its way to Lincolnshire Police “in the coming days” to help manage the arrival of asylum seekers at the former RAF Scampton site.
However, this is a pledge that was made last year and Lincolnshire’s Police & Crime Commissioner says there has been “no ongoing discussion about future funding.”
The Home Office made a commitment in July last year to offering additional funding for the force, which is the lowest funded per capita in the entire country, in order to cope with extra demand brought from the use of RAF Scampton as a holding centre for asylum seekers.
It was agreed that the number of asylum seekers held at the site would drop from 2,000 to 800 earlier this year, but this will not change the initially agreed £1.8 million funding amount for Lincolnshire Police.
However, it has been a long waiting game for Lincolnshire Police to secure these funds, and almost a full calendar year after it was first announced, the £1.8 million looks set to arrive in the county this week.
Lincolnshire Police & Crime Commissioner Marc Jones said that he will not stop at just this one-off batch of funding, and hopes to see more long-term plans for funding models at RAF Scampton to assist his force and officer capabilities.
He said it was unfair to give the force “an extra burden to manage” without proper funding levels to match it.
“From this morning’s (Monday, May 13) meeting I’ve been told everything has been agreed and literally in the next few days we will have last year’s funding delivered, but as far as I’m aware there’s no ongoing discussion about future funding.
“I will be writing to the immigration and policing ministers in the strongest possible terms to outline my concern and frustration that they think it’s alright to give us an extra burden to manage, without giving us the appropriate funding.”
Negotiations around any future funding could well depend on just how many migrants are brought to RAF Scampton, following a recent compromise between the Home Office and West Lindsey District Council.
It is hoped this compromise will allow for Scampton Holdings Ltd to proceed with its £300 million project to turn the site into a heritage centre for the RAF and the Dambusters squadron — but Gainsborough MP Sir Edward Leigh has been taking to the House of Commons to call for the entire site to be freed up instead.
There has still been no sign of arrival for any asylum seekers to the former RAF base, and this reportedly will not take place until the summer as negotiations between the Home Office and West Lindsey District Council continue.