A legal challenge has been launched against the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to house refugees, according to Byline Times reports.
The Mayor of Portland in Dorset, where the UK’s first migrant barge is docked, has submitted a challenge over the government’s decision to accommodate around 500 male asylum seekers in the area without obtaining planning permission.
Parkes is asking the Court to declare that the Home Office’s use of the barge as asylum accommodation is capable of constituting ‘development’ under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and therefore that it may amount to a breach of planning control and possible enforcement action by Dorset Council.
Speaking to Byline Times, Parkes said: “In the 21st century, it’s appalling to think that we’ve even considered housing the most vulnerable people in the world on a barge. The accommodation is wholly unsuitable.
“If the government had put this through a planning procedure, I’m convinced it would have been denied, as the port is a closed area.”
She added that infrastructure in Portland is “stretched to breaking point” while the barge was originally produced for 220 people. “Now they’re talking about 500 people. It’s completely overcrowded and there’s no fire safety certificate,” Parkes said.
“It’s just terrible to think that our country would do something like this to vulnerable people, and to ride roughshod over communities…Human beings do not belong in barges or camps. The correct way to house people is to house them in communities.”
“Portland is not averse to housing asylum seekers. It’s the actual conditions of housing asylum seekers on the barge that is appalling.”