Villagers invite migration minister to visit ahead of plans to house 1,200 male asylum seekers in RAF base: 'We are not racists!'

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Around 600 adult residents and 100 children live in the village and moving asylum seekers in would create a ratio of roughly five men to every woman

Residents in a tiny village of just 600 residents have invited a Labour migration minister to visit ahead of plans to house 1,200 male asylun seekers in a nearby RAF base.

Residents in the North Yorkshire village of Linton-on-Ouse are calling for support from the Minister of State for Border Security and Asylum, Anna Turley MP, and say they have sent "thousands of emails and letters with absolutely no response."

It comes as the Home Office proposes housing 1,200 adult male asylum seekers at the former RAF site in the centre of Linton-on-Ouse, as part of the Labour's bid to close all asylum hotels by 2029.

Those living in the village are calling for public scrutiny of this proposal and say it has already impacted the local economy, with some rental residents moving their families away.

In an open letter Anna Turley, who is also MP for Redcar, the residents call upon her to visit Linton-On-Ouse to examine the feasibility of placing asylum seekers there and say: "We are not racists. We are not ignorant. Nor are we indifferent to the challenge the Government faces in accommodating people seeking asylum.

"We are residents who have examined this proposal carefully and concluded that putting a facility for up to 1,200 single adult men in and alongside a tiny, isolated rural community is the wrong plan in the wrong place.

"We are intelligent, reasonable people asking for an intelligent, reasonable conversation.

"You have spoken publicly about fairness, infrastructure, manageability, security and limiting the impact on communities.

"We are simply asking you to come to Linton-on-Ouse and apply those tests here, in person.

"We will show you the base. We will show you the village. We will introduce you to residents and local representatives. We will listen respectfully to the Government’s case and ask that you listen equally respectfully to ours.

"Linton-on-Ouse is only around an hour’s drive from your own Redcar constituency. We are not asking you to travel the length of the country; we are asking you to make a short journey to a Yorkshire community directly affected by a policy for which you have ministerial responsibility.

"We hope you will agree that this is neither an unreasonable nor a difficult request. And, because this is Yorkshire, we will even provide the tea."

The letter has been written by the Linton-On-Ouse Action Group, made up of a large number of concerned villagers.

The group has previously stated that the proposed asylum centre at the former RAF Linton-on-Ouse is a "huge financial miscalculation".

The group says with initial operating costs projected at a staggering £403.4 million over the next three years, the plan is set to burden UK taxpayers with exorbitant expenses that do not align with responsible fiscal management.

Projections indicate that the Linton centre would incur a minimum cost of £423.29 per asylum seeker per night, and under realistic operational conditions, this figure balloons to £527.81 per night.

These costs far exceed the Home Office's expected baseline of £141 per night for large accommodation sites, and is above average costs of established accommodations which range from £23.25 to £144.98 per night from HMO and shared houses to hotels.

Previous attempts to establish an asylum centre at Linton-on-Ouse in 2022 resulted in a £2.9 million loss in unrecoverable setup fees.

There are also safety concerns over the plans, as well as financial implications. RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, where Prince William trained during his military service in 2008, has a primary school, nursery and children's play area all situated within a mile of the site, and asylum seekers living there would not be detained.

Parents have previously told GB News that they are worried about this, and the concerns have also been raised in Parliament.

Sir Alec Shelbrooke, the Conservative MP for Wetherby & Easingwold, who represents Linton-On-Ouse, pressed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on whether she would exclude the Linton-on-Ouse site from consideration, describing the location as "inappropriate" because of its "proximity to the primary school".

The villagers also say that Linton-On-Ouse does not have the correct infrastructure to support housing asylum seekers and York Central MP Rachael Maskell has also warned of the "huge demand" asylum seekers would place on water, sewage capacity and electricity.

In addition to Linton-On-Ouse, military barracks in Piddington, Barnham, Crowborough and Wethersfield have also been proposed to be repurposed into asylum seeker camps.

The Home Office has insisted using such sites will save the British public hundreds of millions of pounds, after the asylum hotel bill cost the taxpayer £2.1billion last year.

GB News has approached the Home Office and Anna Turley for comment.