Fire at proposed asylum seeker accommodation within UK village treated as arson

A fire at a site earmarked for asylum seeker accommodation is being treated as arson, police have said.

Firefighters were called to a fire in an unoccupied single-storey building in the village of Leverington in Cambridgeshire at 7.26pm on Wednesday.

Cambridgeshire Police said the fire is being treated as arson and is being investigated by the fire service and police.

The force said nobody was hurt but the building was “severely damaged”.

Fenland District Council said earlier this month that it had submitted a full objection to the Home Office over plans to house asylum seekers in the area.

The Conservative-run council shared a statement on its website on Thursday “following a fire at the site proposed by the Home Office for 26-bed asylum seeker accommodation at Roman Court, Leverington”.

A Fenland District Council spokesman said: “Fenland District Council raised serious concerns to the Home Office that this is not an appropriate site for its plans and warned the plans were causing tension in the community.

“We are appalled to see there has now been a fire that police have indicated they are currently investigating as an arson.

“We urge anyone with information about this incident to provide it to the police, and we robustly add our voice to calls for all objections to be made peacefully and within the law.”

The authority has previously described the site for the proposed 26-bed accommodation for women and babies in Leverington as “not suitable to house and support asylum seekers”.

Councillor Chris Boden, leader of Fenland District Council, said in an earlier statement: “This site is not suitable to house and support asylum seekers.

“We have already and will continue to robustly make this case to Government for the benefit of our existing community.

“I may be accused by some of being cynical, but based on how the Home Office has acted in the past, I have no confidence that, given the chance, Government would not end up placing adult men who’ve entered this country illegally into this accommodation.

“I suspect the Government’s ‘mothers and babies’ line is there to try to soften us up.”

Cambridgeshire Police said in a statement that it was called by the fire service at 7.37pm on Wednesday to a report of a fire at a property in Roman Court, Leverington.

A force spokesperson said: “The property was empty at the time, and no-one has been injured.

“Firefighters brought the blaze under control, but the building has been severely damaged.

“The fire is being treated as arson and is being investigated by the fire service and police.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Any form of criminal damage is completely unacceptable.

“The safety of local communities will always be our highest priority, and the police have our full support in their investigation.”

Anyone with information can contact police online at cambs.police.uk/report quoting incident 452 of 21 October, or call 101.