West Lindsey District Council is set to launch a £300m regeneration scheme at RAF Scampton after the Home Office agreed to accommodate fewer asylum seekers at the site.
After months of dispute, the two parties have signed an ‘agreement in principle’ to explore the temporary dual use of the former airfield in Lincolnshire.
The agreement means the council must withdraw its outstanding legal action but will be free to pursue its plans to regenerate part of the land, which it said would provide ‘aviation heritage, business, aerospace, space and education opportunities’.
Council leader Trevor Young said: ‘The council have always been clear that whilst it is our view that the site is unsuitable for large scale asylum accommodation, protecting the investment and regeneration plans for the site is a priority.’
The Home Office will retain just 10% of the site and has agreed to reduce the number of asylum seekers it accommodates from 2,000 to 800.
West Lindsey's director of planning, regeneration and communities, Sally Grindrod-Smith, said: ‘Our strategy to challenge every detail and hold the Home Office to account has successfully delivered the conditions in which the opportunity to collaborate and deliver a temporary, shared use of the site now exists.’
She said there was still a ‘huge amount of detail to work through’, with a shared use proposal to be developed in the coming months.
