I live in the Dambusters village set to house migrants – I have no problem with them but it’s just not suitable here
FLASHING through the sky above the Dambusters’ famed HQ, the Red Arrows are a reminder of RAF Scampton’s unique place in aviation history.
It was from this Lincolnshire airfield that 617 Squadron departed for the legendary 1943 bouncing-bomb raid on Nazi dams in World War Two.
Now locals and historians fear Government proposals for an accommodation centre for 1,500 asylum seekers here will scupper plans to conserve the celebrated site.
Greg Algar, 60, landlord of the nearby Dambusters Inn, told me: “RAF Scampton is the most important site in British aviation history.
“It’s about as suitable a place for a migrant camp as Buckinham Palace.”
Like many in the pretty village of Scampton — population around 1,400 — he is furious that a £300MILLION deal to develop the site, which would preserve its history, may now be just scrapped.
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The plans, predicted to create 1,000 jobs, include a 27-acre aviation heritage trail, two hotels and a business park.
The runway where 19 Lancaster bombers took off for the Dambusters raid would be kept open for air traffic to use.
Speaking at the pub, which is a shrine to Bomber Command, Greg added: “My dad flew 25 raids in Lancasters and my grandad 86 raids in Pathfinders during the war.
“My good friend George “Johnny” Johnson, the last surviving Dambuster, died in December.
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“So like many, I’m desperate to maintain the heritage at the airfield.
“It’s ludicrous to turn your nose up at £300million of regeneration for a site to house 1,500 people.”
Pub Landlord comedian Al Murray, who also presents history podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk, slammed the Government’s scheme as “a tin-eared, bureaucratic blunder that seems completely crazy”.
Along with 39 other leading historians he signed an open letter to Home Secretary Suella Braverman urging her to abandon the plans.
The letter, also signed by broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby and historian Dan Snow, calls the plans “a scandalous desecration of immeasurable recklessness”.
The outcry comes as a public meeting was held close to the base on Monday, where one seething local accused the Government of “sh***ing on” Scampton’s history.
Four historic aircraft hangars remain at the site, and its officers’ mess is intact.
But, outlining the Government’s proposals, Lincolnshire county councillor Richard Butroid said airfield buildings would be refurbished for migrant accommodation.
He also said “Greek-style Porta-kabins, so shipping containers” would be positioned on the airfield’s hard standing.
The Home Office is seeking alternatives to housing more than 51,000 asylum seekers in almost 400 hotels, which is costing taxpayers £5.6million a day.
Sites being considered include former student halls and surplus military sites such as Scampton, which closed in December.
Set in farmland five miles north of Lincoln, the 800-acre base was first used by the Royal Flying Corps in World War One, then as the base for the Dambusters mission in World War Two.
On May 16, 1943, 19 Lancaster bombers took off for occupied Europe under cover of dark.
Led by 24-year old Wing Commander Guy Gibson, they were targeting three dams in the industrial heartland of Germany’s Ruhr Valley.
They carried bouncing bombs designed by British engineer Barnes Wallis to skim across the reservoir water, over torpedo nets, then sink and detonate.
Gibson flew the first sortie, just 60ft above the water and under heavy fire.
Two dams were breached and a third was damaged during the raids. Roads, railways, bridges, factories and power plants were also knocked out, hitting the Nazi war effort.
Of the 19 aircraft dispatched, eight failed to return to Scampton, with the loss of 53 crew and three taken prisoner of war.
Gibson won the Victoria Cross for his valour. In 1955, the daring raids were turned into hit movie The Dambusters.
But last week Ernest Twells, 77, whose father Flight Lieutenant Ernie served with 617 Squadron in the war, said of the Government’s plans for Scampton: “My dad would be very, very upset. It’s a kick in the teeth for the brave men that served.”
On a visit to picturesque Scampton, I watched as RAF aerobatic aces the Red Arrows, based in nearby RAF Waddington, flew in formation before swooping toward the runway.
When I spoke by phone with Sir Edward Leigh, Tory MP for the local Gainsborough constituency, he lamented the possible freezing of the £300million investment plan.
He said: “The deal was cut and dried then the Home Office marched in. They are under tremendous pressure to get migrants out of hotels and are scrabbling around for military bases. The whole asylum system is shot to pieces.””
Mr Leigh, who is opposing the plans “very strongly”, added that, although the migrant centre has not been rubber-stamped, he has been assured by the Home Office that if it does go ahead it will only be for two years.
But this has far from placated villagers in Scampton.
Local councillor and ex-Army infantryman Roger Patterson, who lives near the airfield, said: “People are angry, it’s devastating.
“It’s not about who the asylum seekers are — it could be 1,500 Boy Scouts — but that it destroys a development that would have been a huge attraction for visitors and created much-needed jobs.
“And many of the migrants will be traumatised, they have specialist needs, but the nearest doctor is three miles away.”
Standing outside his self-built bungalow, retired bricklayer Bruce Foulston, 77, told me: “Scampton’s not a suitable place for 1,500 asylum seekers. I’ve nothing against the migrants themselves but the health and education services are already struggling.”
In Scampton itself - a high street of old brick buildings dotted with grander new builds - news that the accommodation might be temporary didn’t placate many locals.
In the graveyard beside the village’s 17th-century St John the Baptist Church, 68 Commonwealth airmen who died fighting the Nazis are buried amid rose bushes.
At their nearby cottage, chartered engineer Graham Roy, 59, and his wife Linda, 72, who took in refugees from Ukraine, DO support plans for the migrant accommodation.
As the Red Arrows soared overhead, dad-of-three Graham said: “RAF Scampton is empty and this would put it to good use.
“We’ve got better things to spend taxpayers’ money on than hotel rooms.”
But dad-of-one and retired welder Terry Fletcher, 63, said: “A company was prepared to invest £300million at the airfield which would have meant long-term jobs for the area.
“They will pull out if part of the airfield is used as a migrant camp. It just seems madness if we lose this investment.”
Peter Hewitt, chair of Scampton Holdings Ltd, the company who are aiming to develop the site, called the Government’s proposals for the migrants “barking mad”.
He told me: “It’s bang in the face of all logic. Lincolnshire needs levelling up, it needs investment and regeneration.
“There are many alternative sites where this camp could be put.”
He confirmed that the development, keeping the 10,000ft runway, would be at risk if the camp happens, saying: “We can’t do both. With an operational runaway you can’t have 1,500 people wandering around.”
No decision on the migrant centre has yet been made.
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The Home Office say they “continue to work with local authorities to identify accommodation options.”
The ghosts of 617 Squadron will be over their shoulders as they decide Scampton’s future.