Pembrokeshire County Council have admitted that the authority is effectively unable to take any enforcement action with regards to the situation at Penally Camp, due to the land being on the Crown Estate.

PCC announced on Wednesday (February 10) that the Home Office has re-confirmed that a planning application is being prepared to allow the temporary use of Penally Camp as an asylum seekers accommodation centre to continue for a further six months (beyond March 21 2021).

However, the Home Office have now made it clear that any planning application will not be submitted to the local authority until around mid-April 2021.

On the subject of enforcement action being taken, a spokesperson for PCC said: “We have always challenged the Home Office as to the suitability of the accommodation.

“However, as the land is Crown Estate, the Local Authority is effectively unable to take any enforcement action.

“We understand that the Home Office will submit an application for planning permission to continue to use the Penally base for a further six months from March 2021 until September 2021,” they added.

The Home Office advised PCC this week that their appointed consultant are working to complete the majority of the technical reports, including - a Phase 1 Ecological Survey, Noise Assessment, Heritage Report, Transport Report and Flood Risk Assessment.

The Home Office have stated that they will begin the required pre-application consultation, a formal 28-day period for public consultation process, in mid-March. 

Following the consultation period, the responses will be collated and the pre-application consultation report prepared - meaning that the site will therefore be under occupation, but without the requisite planning consents being in place, whilst the application process is followed.

A PCC spokesperson said earlier this week: “The Council have been in continual contact with the Home Office and their planning consultant over the last five months, seeking clarification around their planning intention.

“We are disappointed that the Home Office have only now made their intent clear.

“It is of concern that they have not been able to submit a planning application within the required timescale.

“We have always tried to work with key bodies involved to ensure those in the camp and the surrounding community are kept safe, treated with dignity.

“We acknowledge this latest update is unsettling and we will continue to work to ensure community cohesion can be restored following this disruptive decision,” they added.

Following the Home Secretary Priti Patel’s comments in the House of Commons on Monday that the Home Office consult ‘with everybody’ on issues regarding the Penally asylum seekers camp, and correspondence that was sent out to the constituents of MP for South Pembrokeshire and Welsh Secretary of State Simon Hart last week where he stated that he had made a repeated request to the Welsh Government in finding alternative accommodation for asylum seekers currently residing at the facility, to hasten the closure of the camp, Plaid Cymru’s county councillor for the Penally ward Clr. Preston in turn penned an open letter to Mr. Hart asking him to respond to Priti Patel’s claims that the Home Office had consulted the local authority on the repurposing of the camp.

“Yet again, the Home Office have chosen to act on the very periphery of what is lawful and continue to hold a community and vulnerable adults in an extended period of uncertainty,” remarked Clr. Preston.

“I have no doubt that attempts will be made to undermine Welsh Governments position on this but the fact remains that immigration is not a devolved matter.

“This was a decision made by a cabinet that our MP and Secretary of State for Wales Simon Hart is part of.

“This whole situation, from the mismanagement of the asylum process to the absence of any consultation whatsoever, the responsibility is that of the UK Government.

“Following this most recent development and the total lack of empathy shown to all the people affected by this situation I again ask Simon Hart to engage with the local community, listen to our concerns and provide absolute assurance that he has the best interests of those he represents at the forefront of his dealings with the Home Office.

“The absolute priority should be to return Penally camp to the MoD and accommodate the service users in the agreed support networks within the UK.

“If this is not going to be the case then I fail to see how his position can remain tenable,” added Clr. Preston.