News

Forget outraged letters to MPs, having feathered friends on your side could be the secret to defeating the Home Office over plans to build an asylum seeker accommodation centre in your area.

The presence of barn owls and skylarks nesting on the Throckmorton airfield in Worcestershire may scupper the government's controversial proposal to use the land as a site for one of its four 750-bed asylum seeker accommodation centres.

The Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and European directives protect the two breeds, making it illegal to disturb their nests.

A spokesperson for Wychavon Council admitted that the presence of the birds' nests might result in the government changing its plans.