RAF Croughton Expansion: Diplomatic Implications

Andrea Leadsom Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2020 Commons Chamber

[Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for granting this important Adjournment debate today.

RAF Croughton, based in my constituency, was built in 1938 and is home to a United States air force communications station. For many decades, RAF Croughton’s strong links to our local community have been clear. It has regularly held community events and many children of base employees attend local schools. American citizens working at the base have become neighbours and friends of my constituents.

In 2015, I was made aware of a US plan to consolidate some of its UK military and communications operations. RAF Croughton was earmarked for expansion, and the then Secretary of State for Defence wrote to me on 8 January 2015, saying:

“approximately 1300 of the 1900 US Service personnel leaving RAF Alconbury and RAF Molesworth are expected to transfer to Croughton, with all the benefits to the local economy at Croughton this should bring.”

As the local MP, I was given a helpful tour of RAF Croughton and its plans to build new facilities, including housing, a school and a new health centre for its staff. I was pleased to support its proposals and its need for temporary direct access for HGVs from the A43, which is a fast-moving dual carriageway that runs through my constituency.

However, four years on, and before any of those plans got under way, on 27 August 2019 my 19-year-old constituent Harry Dunn tragically died when a car driven by an American citizen from the base hit his motorbike head on, because she was unintentionally driving on the wrong side of the road. A few weeks later, she returned to the USA claiming diplomatic immunity. She has since been charged by the Crown Prosecution Service, and our Home Office has made a request to the US for her extradition to face charges and provide some closure to Harry’s family. This has been denied.

Harry’s mother Charlotte, his father Tim, their whole family and a local network of friends remain in shock and are devastated by their loss. Charlotte asked me to share her words with the House: 

“Then on 27th August 2019, I got the worst possible news any parent could get, that no parent should ever receive. I lost my gorgeous 19-year-old son Harry. He was doing what he loved best, riding his motorcycle. As he was approaching RAF Croughton, about 3 miles from where we live, riding perfectly safely, he was struck by a car being driven on the wrong side of the road.

He died an unimaginably slow, painful, agonising and distressing death, having landed on the verge by the side of the road and broken just about every bone in his body. By the time I got to hospital it was too late. He had already passed and I didn’t get to say goodbye to him or to comfort him. That will tear me apart for the rest of my life. I did however promise him that I would get him justice and as his mother I will not let him down.

I know there is nothing I can do to turn the clock back. I won’t see his happy face again walking through the door, get a hug or a text.

Harry was a wonderful young man with all of his life ahead of him.”

Those are very moving words. The fact is, Madam Deputy Speaker, that if you or I unintentionally killed someone by driving on the wrong side of the road, we would face the UK judicial system, one of the best in the world, designed to deliver justice to victims and fairness to perpetrators.

At a recent meeting with senior representatives of RAF Croughton and the US embassy, they made clear to me their deep sense of sympathy and sorrow for Harry’s family and friends. Nevertheless, we are just not making any progress in achieving justice and closure for Harry. It is now six months from the day that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary put in the request for extradition and almost a year that Harry’s family and friends have been trying to deal with their unimaginable loss.

Let me turn now to the point of my Adjournment debate. May I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, on behalf of Harry’s family, for permitting this debate? There have recently been planning applications submitted to South Northamptonshire Council on behalf of RAF Croughton presumably to begin the work on its expansion. One of the applications is to change the entrance to the base—the point at which American citizens leave or arrive by car. It proposes to keep its entrance on a quiet B road. It is not proposing to move the entrance to the A43, which is a busy road with a central reservation that would ensure that all vehicles leave and arrive on the correct side of the road. But speaking frankly, Madam Deputy Speaker, it is unthinkable under the circumstances that any planning applications from the base can be treated as business as usual between two long-standing allies. Many constituents, other people right across the country and even from the United States itself have written to me to say, “So if I, or a member of my family, is driving or walking near the base and an American citizen accidentally harms or kills us, that person can simply go back to the United States and there is nothing that the UK can do about it, even though the United States of America is our greatest ally and one half of a special relationship.” It is utterly intolerable.

I have discussed this issue at length with the leader of South Northamptonshire Council. He has taken every possible step to ensure improvements to signage and road markings near the base in order to prevent any other tragedy in the future. He quite rightly points out that our local council is permitted to take only a planning decision based on planning law. However, he has also pointed out to me that, whereas the powers of a local planning authority are limited, the Secretary of State is able to call in any applications under the rules that are permitted on applications that

“could have significant effects beyond their immediate locality; give rise to substantial regional or national controversy…or may involve the interests of national security or of foreign Governments.”

In my view and in the view of many residents of South Northamptonshire, it is essential that the Secretary of State calls in all planning applications that could leave my constituents vulnerable to future tragedies.

When Harry’s parents, Charlotte and Tim, came to see me for the first time, in October 2019, it was an emotional meeting, and I assured them that I would do everything possible to achieve justice for Harry and to ensure that the tragedy that happened to their family will not happen to another. Since then, I have worked with my right hon. Friends the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Attorney General, the Health Secretary and the Transport Secretary, as well as the Crown Prosecution Service, the police and crime commissioner for Northamptonshire, the US embassy and the base commander at RAF Croughton. At every stage, the focus has been on achieving justice for Harry and making sure that this tragedy is never repeated. And yet, I am sorry to say, despite all the local efforts to improve signage, the efforts at the base to improve driver training, and the efforts of Northamptonshire police to enforce and follow up all incidents in recent months, we continue to see near misses. Just last week, two young men recorded a car travelling toward them on their side of the road, just near the base. Who knows if this was another American citizen forgetting to drive on the left? Is it not terrible that so many of my constituents are now fearful of the base?

I know that my colleagues in Government share my desire for justice to be done and to prevent any repeat of this terrible tragedy. It seems to me that for any potential expansion or changes to be agreed at RAF Croughton, we need our greatest allies, the United States of America, to demonstrate their empathy for this devastated family by allowing justice to be done for Harry. RAF Croughton is a key part of the 501st combat support wing, whose vision includes the phrase, “Focused on strong communities where families thrive”. If they do not live their vision, they cannot expect the residents of Brackley, Croughton and the surrounding villages to support the prospect of hundreds more US citizens moving to the base.

I have three requests of the Government. First, make it very clear to the US Government that they, as our key ally, should not be denying justice to Harry’s family, and that we will never accept this treatment of a UK citizen. Secondly, any expansion at RAF Croughton should not be permitted while this issue remains unresolved. The Secretary of State should call in every application from the base to consider it from a national perspective, as well as to protect UK citizens from future tragedies. Thirdly, the Secretary of State should consider requiring the base to move its access point to the A43, which has a central reservation. That would ensure that RAF Croughton’s personnel drive on the correct side of the road, which could prevent tragedies like the death of Harry Dunn from happening again.