Europe’s biggest detention centre for illegal immigrants is to be built in the heart of the English countryside, the Home Office confirmed yesterday.The news was greeted with dismay by people who fear the £32million development will be a blot on the landscape and send house prices plummeting.
The centre will hold up to 800 foreign nationals awaiting deportation. It will have the same security status as a Category C prison and be surrounded by a 17ft-high razor wire fence.
The facility will be built either in Bullingdon, near Bicester in Oxfordshire, or on the site of the existing Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre in Bedfordshire.
The Home Office will decide on the location next month.
The UK Border Agency claims the new complex, due to open by 2012, is “critical” in its plans to speed up the removal of illegal immigrants.
However Marjorie Read, who lives in the village of Piddington, near Bullingdon, said: “People have paid a premium to live here and if you want to sell your property it is going to be difficult.
“Until this is built it will be almost impossible to sell because we won’t know the impact.
“It will be very visible because it will be three storeys high and will have security lighting.”
Resident David Hughes added: “The proposed site in Bullingdon is half a mile from two villages and people in both are understandably very worried.
“The Government should be tightening up border controls instead of pouring money into building detention centres.”
Brian Johnson, of Piddington, said: “The centre will destroy this beautiful part of the country. We are being used as an asylum landfill for the huge numbers of people who shouldn’t be here.”
Planning applications for the complex were submitted to councils at both sites last year.
The plans to double the size of the centre at Yarl’s Wood, which holds 405 inmates, were approved by Bedford Borough Council last month.
And on Thursday proposals for the centre at Bullingdon were given the green light by Cherwell District Council.
Sarah Hayward, of campaigners Coalition Against Bullingdon Immigration Removal Centre, said: “This site is not suitable and will have a huge impact on the people living nearby.” continues here
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