Labour councillor says Home Office proposals for former RAF base in Barnham ‘unsuitable’ owing to 200 breeding pairs of stone curlews
Shabana Mahmood will break the law if she goes ahead with plans for an asylum camp on land where endangered stone curlews nest, a council leader has said.
Cliff Waterman, the Labour leader of West Suffolk council, said Home Office plans to convert the former RAF base in Barnham in Suffolk into a camp for up to 1,250 asylum seekers were “unsuitable” and “unlawful”.
This is because the site is within a special wildlife protection zone that hosts more than 200 breeding pairs of stone curlews.
The birds are so endangered that habitat regulations dictate that no development should take place within 1.5 km of their nesting sites.
His statement comes as Barnham town councillors are expected to decide this weekend whether to follow the Oxfordshire village of Piddington and stage a symbolic referendum to quit the UK in protest at the asylum camp plans.
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