Inside the Home Counties town that fought to become a ‘sanctuary’ for refugees

In Herefordshire, a fight has been ongoing between the local Reform and Lib Dems groups over becoming a sanctuary for refugees. Earlier this year, the Lib Dems, who are the minority leaders of the county council, pushed forward with plans to join the sanctuary for refugees scheme. The City of Sanctuary Local Authority network costs £2700 to join and involves councils sharing resources and practices for working with asylum seekers and refugees, such as tips for teaching English as a second language to refugees. The scheme also means councils make a commitment to being “a place of sanctuary”, meaning they foster an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere for refugees and asylum seekers. The status is granted over a period of three years. After that, councils have to be reaccredited. Local authorities have a statutory duty to support asylum seekers that are in their catchment area, with the funds coming from the Asylum Dispersal Grant, which is ringfenced funding from the Home Office. City of Sanctuary confirmed to The i Paper that the only monetary cost is the application fee, which is £900 for each of the three years that the status lasts, though Reform UK figures in Hertfordshire worry that it could be opening the door to additional spending. The motion for Hertfordshire County Council to join the network was first brought by a Labour councillor last month, though it is being championed by the Lib Dem group that runs the council. When the move was announced there was a backlash from some Hertfordshire residents, with a petition calling for a referendum to be held on the decision reaching 16,000 signatures on change.org (though it is unclear how many of these are Hertfordshire residents). The Reform UK group in Hertfordshire also opposed the move, attempting to block it at the scrutiny committee and accusing the council, which claims that there is no additional cost beyond the joining fee, of making a “flawed decision” based on “flawed data”. Cllr Doug Bainbridge, leader of the Reform group, believed that membership of the Sanctuary network could come with hidden additional costs. He said: “It’s just a business decision – £2700 doesn’t sound like a lot of money, and it’s not, but what about the rest of it? What’s the five-year financial plan on this? What does Hertfordshire get out it? You know we’ve got some lovely little villages in Hertfordshire. What do they get out of this other than having to put their hand in their pocket?” He added that he believed Hertfordshire County Council “are being very shady about what the figures are”. Liberal Democrat Cllr Ajanta Hilton, the council’s executive member for public safety, said resources were not being wasted on joining the network, stating that “we absolutely will not be prioritising this” and that “it’s not going to cost any additional resources apart from the £2700 accreditation fee”. Questions of how the council spends money are particularly pertinent in Hertfordshire at the moment, as council officials predict a £23.4m budget overspend, based on the first three months of the 2026/27 financial year. ‘What is it?’ Residents of Stevenage in Hertfordshire had not heard of the decision to join the City of Sanctuary local authority network. Cameron, who only gave his first name said he hadn’t heard of the decision, but when it was explained to him, said: “In my opinion, it doesn’t really benefit us.” Cameron questioned what benefit the scheme would have for the area He added: “I don’t necessarily think we should be more welcoming [to asylum seekers]. We’ve got lots of homeless people – if you’re going to give anyone a place, give it to them.” He did add, however, that he would support joining the network if it meant better management of the asylum seekers already in Hertfordshire. At the Standing Order pub, Colin Blagden offered similar sentiments, and admitted he hadn’t heard of the Council of Sanctuary. He questioned the idea of becoming more welcoming, saying that he didn’t want more asylum seekers coming to the county, but added: “Once they’re here we should help settle them in. It’s no good getting stroppy about them, they’re already here.” He added that it was his impression from talking to people that “people have had enough” with how the asylum system works in Hertfordshire. Colin Blagden said he had not heard of the scheme ‘We need to help them’ Hertfordshire has seen divisive asylum hotel protests in Cheshunt, where the Delta Marriott hotel housed asylum seekers between 2022 and June 2026. Speaking from Stevenage’s old town, Clive Hearmon said that while he was previously unaware of the move, he was supportive of measures to allow asylum seekers to integrate. He said that people seeking asylum has “always happened”. “I’m from South Lincoln myself, and there were lots of [refugees] that came there after the war,” he added. It was his view that refugees, asylum seekers – “people fleeing war where they bomb civilians” – should be welcomed in Hertfordshire and that he was “fine” with the scheme to improve the integration of asylum seekers. Jay Brown, also in the Standing Order, was also unaware of the scheme, but felt that it was not an important thing for the council to be disputing, and that the area had bigger problems, such as litter and waste collection. He said: “I leave my house and my dog gets cut up by broken glass that people have left and I have to pay vet bills that are more than council tax! It’s really not fair. “I’m a construction worker; I always say a clean site is a happy site. If you’ve got a clean town and clean village, it’ll be a happy town and happy village. The council needs to sort that [and other problems, like potholes] out.” Not everyone was unaware of the scheme. Several people that signed the petition did not want to give their names. These residents signed out of the belief that the “Council of Sanctuary” designation would inevitably mean more asylum seekers in Hertfordshire, and that the resources of the county were already stretched. “The petition on change.org, in its premise, contained misinformation. It said that it would fundamentally change Hertfordshire. That’s not true at all,” Hilton said. “In fact, I can tell you that the number of asylum seekers in hotels has gone down from 1507 in October 2025 to 503 in October 2026. “We join lots of networks and accreditations in our council. My portfolio includes violence against women and girls so we’ve joined the White Ribbon accreditation to demonstrate that as employers we fully support action against [violence against women and girls] VAWG.” In her view, it was not the council wasting time and resources in joining the scheme, but the Reform group doing so in opposing it. Most people had not heard of the scheme despite the battle between the Lib Dems and Reform (Photo: Justin Tallis/AFP) She said: “In doing what [Reform] were doing, calling meetings to keep on raising this, constantly questioning it. They submitted 13 documents at 17:15pm before this scrutiny meeting we were meant to review. Now that is taking an inordinate amount of officer time, councillor time, and time away from what actually matters. “If they spent some time helping with violence against women and girls, training standards, maybe looking into helping the fire service, volunteering, that would do Hertfordshire much more benefit than just constantly picking at something that is not a big cost or issue.” For his part Bainbridge said that he distrusted the promises of the council: “I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of faith in what other parties say. I can only speak for my own, and we want to put our townspeople who’ve lived here for generations first”. A spokesperson for City of Sanctuary said: “England still lacks a national integration strategy, leaving councils to fill the gap. “The Council of Sanctuary scheme helps councils make good use of central government funding which comes with each person placed in communities by the Home Office, to strengthen partnerships and support people to become part of their new communities. “It neither determines who comes to Britain nor creates new immigration entitlements. Integration is not an optional extra: it is how we build cohesive communities, prevent isolation and ensure public services work effectively for everyone.”