“We Wun’t Be Druv”: Crowborough’s Reaction to the 600-Strong Illegal Immigrant Camp Proposal
“We wun’t be druv” is the motto of the county of Sussex and proudly indicates that Sussex people have minds of their own, that they cannot be forced against their will or told what to do. It therefore couldn’t apply more perfectly to the Sussex town of Crowborough, which is currently engaged in a fierce battle to prevent around 600 asylum seekers (a.k.a. illegal immigrants) being placed in an army training camp next to the town: a camp which until now has been in constant use by local air and army cadets for training.
As information regarding the proposal for the camp has gradually and belatedly been forthcoming from the local Wealden Council and the Home Office, shock at the news has morphed into a coherent and organised opposition to the plan. Outrage at the incoherence of the whole idea has been substantially exacerbated by the amazingly inept pronouncements by the joint leader of Wealden District Council – Rachel Millward, who is also deputy leader of the Green Party. She has veered wildly between official – but half-hearted – council opposition to the plan and supporting her party’s line and asserting that migrants are welcome but must be allowed to work because amongst their number are “doctors, surgeons and… barbers”. At mention of the last in a public meeting in the town, the audience erupted with joy when Kim Bailey, the feisty leader of Crowborough Shield, a grassroots protest group, pointed out to Ms Millward that said doctors don’t come to the UK in rubber dinghies, throwing their medical degree documents into the Channel en route.
The latest incarnation of the growing dismay and anger in the town was a march on Sunday morning. As the mist cleared over Crowborough Beacon, the second highest point in inland Sussex, 2,000 people – and not a few dogs – gathered to march through their small town centre. There was an atmosphere of calm and cheeriness but also determination and as they walked amongst a sea of flags they chanted “Crowborough says no” and “Get Starmer out”. There will be another march next Sunday and the Sunday after that and meanwhile crowdfunding is in place to fund the cost of hiring a KC to fight the plan.
As the protest has intensified under the stewardship of Crowborough Shield and other grassroots protest groups, it has become abundantly clear how communities are betrayed by those who are elected and paid to serve them. Wealden County Council – which operates out of offices down towards the Sussex coast – has 45 councillors, the majority of whom have not uttered a word regarding the proposal. A Green councillor has unhelpfully sought to rubbish the idea of overturning the Home Office proposal, whilst an independent councillor and resident of Crowborough, Andrew Wilson, is honourably fighting to get it rejected. Only a handful of councillors have raised their heads above the parapet to utter on the matter. What are all the other councillors thinking or doing? The same may be said of the local Town Council, whose rank and file sat silent on the stage at a recent public meeting. What do these layers of bureaucracy for which the electorate pays offer in return? At the apex of these layers sits the Home Office, whose Asylum Accommodation Delivery Director has stoically responded to questions posed at three meetings. His focus on the wellbeing of the camp’s residents has evoked amazement (this is to include “activities” – ping pong? darts? crafting?) as has the fact that the camp residents will be free to exit the camp at any time and may stay away for up to seven days – at which point they will be presumed to have made other arrangements. In other words, they will have disappeared and the Home Office will have no idea where they are. There was zero overt discussion regarding the safety of Crowborough’s women and children other than the indication that camp residents will be given advice on how to conduct themselves outside the camp. Jolly good.
This week, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has proposed measures that will be taken to impede the flow of illegal migrants. Is that a consolation to the residents of Crowborough? Hardly. Today the sun shines down on the Sussex countryside, and that means that in all probability a few hundred more men are en route to our southern coast to enter our country illegally. Their fate? They will be processed at Manston and then dispersed to hotels or whatever other accommodation the Home Office can throw cash at, and then provided with every possible facility completely free of charge.
The fate of Crowborough? To be decided – but if it has anything to do with the people of Crowborough, they will not be the victims of past and present governments’ inertia and gross incompetence in the face of uncontrolled immigration. In other words, they certainly wun’t be druv.
Madeleine Gillies is a Crowborough resident with a career in language teaching in the UK and abroad.
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The illegals will not stay in camp for long.
In Epping we see young men with large bags of possessions, well dressed and with mobile phones make their way from the Bell Motel to the underground station. We rarely see them come back. There can be little doubt they all disappear into their respective diaspora.
We often see them walking to the town centre and back again.
Meanwhile the town of Altrincham has been saddled for over a year now with hundreds of young male migrants accommodated in the Cresta Hotel:
https://www.pimlicojournal.co.uk/p/the-altrincham-asylum-hotel-is-even
Like Crowborough, the local council brick wall remains intact, “There is no information to suggest that the accommodating asylum seekers will lead to increases in crime or anti-social behaviour.”
Try telling that to the migrant crime statistics the state does its best to conceal.
Like Crowborough, the local council brick wall remains intact, “There is no information to suggest that the accommodating asylum seekers will lead to increases in crime or anti-social behaviour.” —– There only way for this to be true is that it’s somehow guaranteed that not a single person placed in this hotel will ever commit a crime or engage in antisocial behaviour because otherwise, a crime or … will have been committed which wouldn’t have happened without the hotel placement. What the council probably meant to write is: Overall crime rate, that is, the number of crimes committed divided by the number of residents, will remain broadly the same. There’s a mathematical sleight of hand here because the increased number of crimes is supposed to be neutralized by the increase of the population. But the population of residents who aren’t asylum seekers won’t increase because of an increase of asylum seekers. This means the crime load for the original population will actually become larger: In addition to local crooks targetting local residents, there’ll now also be illegal immigrant crooks targetting the same local residents which means more crimes per local resident despite the overall crime rate remains the same when the base… Read more »
Ultimately, The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Steve Reed OBE MP has the power under section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to “call-in” any specific planning application for his own determination instead of letting the Local Authority decide. This power can be used for controversial developments with national implications, such as those raising significant issues of national policy. Before becoming an MP in 2024 Mr Reed was the Leader of the Labour Group on the London Borough of Croydon Council. It seems it will not be necessary to consult the people of Crowborough or anywhere else for that matter. Whereas change of use applications for hotels has proven to be a moot point, this is a clear change of use and requires planning permission.
Reed is a classic example of an incompetent moron. Croydon Council eh? Did he get his OBE for bankrupting a council….twice….so far? His performance as the agricultural minister for cities was appalling, running away from the farming community that actually makes up the agricultural community, telling them bare faced lies about ‘supporting farmers’ when Rachel From Accounts set out to bankrupt farmers, force them from their family owned farms, push more farmers into suicide to prevent their families getting an inheritance tax bill. And his standout performance when faced by Camilla Tominey as his party conference was priceless as he had no clue how many houses his ministry has seen built under Labour.
The locals should organise a system of guarding the camp 24 hours a day to stop the immigrant scum setting foot outside. Unfortunately it is on main road so blocking it to stop the police interferring is not really an option but a host of burnt out vans and cars might deter them.
Run Asylum camps like a summer festival. Simple really, thousands sleep outdoors in fields all summer bouncing off sound systems, dancing all night, getting stupid in the face and paying hundreds for the experience . Now, remove the right to rave, keep the fences, hide the lasers and strip back the festival to the bare minimum and provide modest tented accommodation. Canteen tent, welfare tent, shower block, slam door portaloo’s and access to bare essentials. Safe, secure & controlled just like any festival these days, as opposed to the ‘illegal parties’ that we have been enduring.
Crowborough: a hotbed of bigoted, far-right agitators.
/sarc
Good luck to them
As these demos are nationwide, including Ireland, the whole UK in your mind is bigoted and far right. How many are you putting up in your house?
Do you not recognise sarcasm?
Clue from above post = “/sarc”
Meanwhile John Swinney, Scotland’s useless First Minister, has complained about the protests about Cameron Barracks in Inverness being used to house 200 illegal immigrants and counter demonstrations organised by groups allied to the Socialist Workers Party. Swinney’s complaint was that the same faces seem to keep popping up at demonstrations related to immigration and that he’s seen the same faces in Falkirk, Perth, Aberdeen and now Inverness. He’s obviously suggesting that anti-immigration protests don’t represent the views of local people without mentioning that it’s far more likely that the same faces keep popping up on the counter demonstrations.
I don’t live in Crowborough, but I’ve made a small donation in solidarity.
The Establishment WANTS these criminal migrants here. Their “policies” are all the proof you need.
I live in Sussex, and have never seen of heard those silly words.
It has become abundantly clear how communities are betrayed by those who are elected and paid to serve them. They all need to be investigated to establish allegiance to the WEF. At least Starmer admits to being part of the Bolshevik WEF movement, and prefers Davos to the Westminster Ghetto of corruption.
With over 180,000 of these young fighting fit aliens accommodated and fed by our taxpayers money across our country it is only a matter of time before their savage actions tip us over the edge of our patience. How many rapes, stabbings, murders and threats are we going to take before things explode? I believe that our government and politicians have procrastinated long enough. They are traitors to the British people for allowing this abuse to continue. The MSM is complicit, in its virtual silence and feeble, apathetic reporting.
Meanwhile we are being impoverished by the obscene cost of paying for this invasion with our money. Again, It is only a matter of time before this invasion army becomes armed and militarised and set against us.