Council containing Britain's biggest asylum camp only spent £40,000 on extra police, despite £2.7m unspent grants: Local women say they are 'terrified'

An Essex council containing Britain's biggest asylum camp has been engulfed in scandal over how it has spent money earmarked to mitigate the site. Braintree District Council still has £2.7million in Home Office grants sitting unspent in its coffers, after receiving more than £3.8million between July 2023 and June 2026. It received the money to help manage the impact of MDP Wethersfield, the disused RAF base repurposed in July 2023 to house asylum seekers. But the local authority has now been heavily criticised for not spending the vast majority of the sum intended to help the area deal with the impact of the 1,245-asylum-seeker-capacity site. It only gave £40,000 to Essex Police for 'community cohesion' patrols to provide increased visibility within the town of Braintree, located just eight miles from the base. This lack of spending comes despite residents repeatedly expressing their feelings of intimidation, harassment, theft and violence at the hands of asylum seekers, while asking for additional police patrols in the town centre. Police data show 232 calls to 999 and 101 at the site since 2020, with the vast majority (192) coming since the asylum seekers moved in. The total calls included 31 for assault, three for rape, two for sexual offences, nine for theft, one for stabbing and two for human trafficking and slavery. Residents of the site have also been recorded in 62 crimes, 13 of which resulted in a charge or caution. RAF Wethersfield is Britain's biggest asylum camp and has capacity for 1,245 asylum seekers - with a surge capacity of 1,700 Your browser does not support iframes. The documents revealing the council's spending plans and the police's crime data were uncovered exclusively by the Daily Mail via freedom of information (FOI) laws. Robert Bates, of the Centre for Migration Control, said: 'The people of Braintree are suffering greatly as a result of RAF Wethersfield and the heavy handed, contemptuous approach of Whitehall officials towards their concerns. 'It is baffling that these funds are sitting underused gathering dust as crime runs rampant and residents spend their daily lives fraught with concern. 'If the government insists that the Wethersfield site must be used then it should be a detained facility, preventing illegal migrants from roaming around the local community.' In a statement, Braintree District Council blamed the Home Office for the lack of spending, arguing that it was 'immensely frustrated' that it was not able to release more funds due to bureaucratic hurdles. It said: 'We are the only local authority that receives this type of grant and comes with considerable restrictions on what it can be spent on; the funding instructions are kept confidential and the Home Office must approve all non-statutory funding. 'We can't use it to close our budget gap and, to our immense frustration, we've never been told what projects would be acceptable. 'It took more than a year of trial-and-error applications to unlock community funds at a fraction of what we had intended to allocate.' Many female residents find migrants hanging around the town of Braintree intimidating Your browser does not support iframes. Conservative MP for Braintree Sir James Cleverly said: 'The Home Office must provide clarity on what the Council is able to spend its grant on and allow it to prioritise the protection of the local community.' Braintree District Council said it has continually opposed this site since it was first announced in March 2023, but the Government bypassed its Local Planning Authority powers to grant itself planning permission for it. Its scathing indictment of Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's department comes as yet another instance of central government riding roughshod over local authorities to set up asylum sites – despite local opposition. When the Mail visited Braintree back in August, local charity shop volunteer Hannah expressed her frustration at the situation and said: 'I hate this town. Working here alone as a woman is scary. 'On Thursdays [the day a shuttle bus drives the asylum seekers from the site to Braintree town centre] there are no women, no kids, no locals. Just hundreds of men.' Susan Doan, the co-owner of a beauty salon in Braintree, also voiced concern to the Mail back in March that her colleagues and clients were scared to leave late at night due to the sudden influx of young men loitering outside. She said: 'They hang around outside the shop blowing kisses at the staff here. 'During the dark nights you would not want to leave here on your own. Susan Doan said one of her clients was 'terrified' after being followed by a group of men when she left her salon Migrants from the Wethersfield camp are dropped off in Braintree by minibuses The Wethersfield site has a fleet of 17 minibuses to drive residents to and from the towns of Braintree, Colchester and Chelmsford 'I had a client who left here and was followed by a group. She was terrified and so came straight back. 'What's been done to safeguard the women and children and make sure people feel safe coming into their own town?' There is such concern over the absence of a police presence in the town centre that the Reform-controlled Essex County Council has launched a scheme for security guards to patrol the town centres of Braintree, Colchester and Essex. The scheme, which Reform have named Operation Vanguard, hires contractors that don't have police powers from the private security firm, My Local Bobby, to monitor the town centres and perform citizen's arrests if need be. The scheme is being run on a three-month trial period and is expected to cost around £118,000 plus VAT, paid for from the council's £150,000 reserve community innovation and improvement Fund. In a statement, Essex County Council said Operation Vanguard was set up 'in response to concerns around the presence of people from the Wethersfield Airfield Asylum Accommodation' and serves to 'maintain a visible presence to reassure the public seven days a week'. Essex Police data uncovered by the Mail shows that before the site began to be used by the asylum seekers, there were only two 999 calls made a year in reference to the Wethersfield facility. But in the first full year that asylum seekers moved in, that number rose to 82. Operation Vanguard officers speak to a member of the public as the scheme got underway last month Chief Inspector Martin Richards, District Commander for Braintree police service, said officers have an on-site role at Wethersfield. He said so far in 2026, officers have made 23 arrests of residents, including four in the wider Essex community, five outside Essex, and 14 relating to incidents at the accommodation site itself, mainly involving alleged offences between residents. He added that Braintree had 'seen the largest fall in crime in all 14 Essex districts over the past 12 months' and that the town 'sees less crime now compared to when the site opened three years ago'. Braintree District Council's documents show it spent the remaining £960,000 of its government grant on safeguarding and care, translation services and staffing costs – including a £139,000 payment for a communications officer. It had previously raised eyebrows after it was revealed earlier this year that it had spent a £50,000 Home Office grant on 'gardening' , 'art and dance classes' and 'cricket coaching' for asylum seekers. A Home Office spokesman did not respond to questions about the points raised by Braintree District Council and its reasons for not spending the money. He instead told the Mail that the government was committed to closing all asylum hotels and moving to alternative accommodation, including former military sites. Conservative MP for Braintree, James Cleverly, has repeatedly opposed RAF Wethersfield being used to house asylum seekers Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood previously pledged to close the site by 2027, but it has now been extended The Home Office said it was providing additional funding to Essex Police to cover costs related to operating the Wethersfield site. Sir James said: 'While I was Home Secretary, the number of people at Wethersfield Asylum Centre was capped and a closure date of 2027 was set. 'The Labour Government has now announced plans to extend the use of the site and increase the cap on numbers from 800 to 1,245 residents. 'This is unacceptable. This extension shows a complete lack of respect from this Labour Government for our local community. 'I have consistently stated that Wethersfield is not an appropriate location for an asylum centre. I have pressed the Home Office to close the site and have met residents to hear their concerns.'