A residents’ group has said it plans to launch a fresh legal challenge over plans to use a military training camp in Crowborough as accommodation for asylum seekers.
The new challenge against the Home Office would follow the group’s initial legal bid being thrown out for being filed before the Government decided to go ahead with plans to use the site.
Legal action was first filed against the government by Crowborough Shield, a community interest company, in December last year after it revealed it was considering housing up to 540 men at the site in East Sussex.
On Friday, Mr Justice Mould dismissed the claim as “premature” and stated that the group had “jumped the gun”, as at the time the initial claim was launched, there was “no clearly determined policy to use the camp” as accommodation for asylum seekers.
However, he said that after the government’s January announcement, that it would go ahead with the plans, the decision was now “at least in principle” open to a legal challenge.
Speaking on behalf of the group following the ruling, Matthew Shankland said that it intends to issue a new High Court claim by Wednesday, the deadline for the challenge being filed.
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He said: “We believe that issuing this claim when we did was the only available course for our community.”
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He continued: “Our current inclination is to recommence proceedings next week.”
Mr Shankland told reporters that the group had already spent more than £100,000 on legal fees, and that a new claim could see it cost “possibly the same again”.
Kim Bailey, director and chairwoman of the group, told reporters outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London that a second claim would have a “cost impact”.
She said: “That is something I will take forward with the community, because essentially it is their decision whether they want to take this further forward.
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“But we will be issuing again, before Wednesday.”
The Government’s announcement that it was considering these plans, last October, came as it sought to end the use of hotels.
The Home Office approved the plan in January this year, with 27 men housed at the camp last month despite a series of protests in the town and opposition from Wealden District Council over the move.
The Crowborough site, which has been given to the Home Office by the Ministry of Defence for 12 months, was previously used to accommodate Afghan families evacuated during the withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 while they were resettled elsewhere.
