Dorset council is facing an urgent high court challenge by one of its local mayors about the use of the Bibby Stockholm barge to accommodate asylum seekers in Portland.
The case has reached the high court in two days and is the first time the council has been challenged directly in the high court in relation to the barge. It comes days before the Home Office is due to return people to the barge, which has been empty for more than two months after deadly legionella bacteria was discovered onboard.
The Home Office has issued notices to asylum seekers saying they will be returned to the barge on 19 October. The Guardian understands that 29 of the original 39 people who spent just under five days onboard from 7-11 August are due to return. Others have made arrangements to stay with relatives or have been granted leave to remain.
Individual legal challenges against returning to the barge are under way by some people.
The Home Office has issued fresh guidance called Failure to travel to the Bibby Stockholm vessel, saying that support will be terminated for those who “fail to take up the offer of accommodation on the vessel”.
The high court on Wednesday rejected a challenge by the mayor of Portland, Carralyn Parkes, acting in a personal capacity, against the Home Office, claiming its use of the Bibby Stockholm to accommodate asylum seekers there breaches planning rules. In that case, government lawyers argued that Dorset council, the local planning authority, had no planning jurisdiction over the barge.
The judge in the case, Mr Justice Holgate, suggested that any claim about a planning contravention needed to be directed against the council rather than the Home Office so Parkes swiftly launched a case against Dorset council and issued proceedings in the high court on Thursday.
In her latest case, Parkes is seeking a decision by the high court that the council has erred in law in determining it cannot take planning enforcement action against the use and stationing of the Bibby Stockholm barge connected to a finger pier and access road in Portland harbour. She claims this failure of the council to take enforcement action is enabling the Home Office to push through its plan to house approximately 500 asylum seekers on the barge, circumventing the proper planning process.
If a judge decides the council can take planning enforcement action against the Home Office for use of the barge this could be another roadblock in government efforts to accommodate asylum seekers there.
The siting of the barge in Portland has attracted criticism from those who support people seeking asylum and those who do not. Far-right activity in the area has increased since the arrival of the barge.
Parkes said: “I have been really reluctant to take my local authority to court. Although I am acting as a private individual, as an elected town councillor I recognise the difficult position that the home secretary has put Dorset council in. However, I also strongly disagree with Dorset council’s ongoing determination that it does not have jurisdiction over the Bibby Stockholm barge.
“I feel very strongly that the decision to accommodate people in this way in Portland has been imposed upon us, as the local community, without any consultation. I am very concerned about the risks to the vulnerable people who will shortly again be accommodated on the barge.”
In the case earlier this week, Dorset council was an interested party and made written submissions to the high court that while it does not consider the area of water where the barge sits to be within its planning jurisdiction, areas onshore “remain under active review and consideration including as to possible planning enforcement action”.
A Dorset council spokesperson said: “Dorset council is very disappointed at Ms Parkes’s decision to issue a judicial review proceedings claim against the council. She will be aware that, after much consideration and having taken advice from king’s counsel, Dorset council decided it was not appropriate to use public funds to actively pursue legal action against the home secretary regarding the siting of the Bibby Stockholm at Portland Port.
“The council continues to stand by the decision it made in July this year that the Bibby Stockholm is outside of its planning jurisdiction and so does not have planning enforcement powers.”
