'A lot of questions' over immigration centre plans

Residents attended a public engagement event at Exeter Hall in Kidlington

Residents still have "a lot of questions" about proposals for the reopening of a controversial immigration centre, an MP has said.

The government has confirmed it plans to refurbish, reopen and expand Campsfield House Immigration Removal Centre, near Oxford Airport.

The centre was shut in 2018 after years of problems, including riots, escapes and complaints about conditions.

The Home Office held a public engagement event in Exeter Hall in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, to showcase the proposed plans.

Calum Miller, Lib Dem MP for Bicester and Woodstock, attended the meeting and said the government intended to use a Crown Development Order to bypass the normal planning route for phase two of the project.

The site's operator Mitie was recently given a six-year contract to run the site and it expects to reopen it in December.

According to government plans, the centre would undergo a £70m revamp

According to government plans, the centre would undergo a £70m revamp, involving the creation of about 160 bed spaces, with further expansion in future for up to 400 beds.

It added that Campsfield House would be used to accommodate "a mixture of time-served foreign national offenders and immigration offenders while we prepare to remove them from the UK".

MPs, residents and charities have opposed the plans.

Mr Miller said while he welcomed Home Office representatives coming to talk to residents, people were "still left with a lot of questions".

"If [the Home Office] do proceed to build a new facility it's vital there's a proper monitoring arrangement in place and that those living in the facility are well looked after," he said.

Mr Miller said most locals were "dismayed" to hear about the Crown Development Order.

He said: "They already feel that they haven't been consulted adequately on phase one of this project.

"To hear that phase two with an expansion of a further 230-odd beds in the facility might happen without their opportunity to contribute, I think will worry them greatly."

MP Calum Miller said locals "feel that they haven't been consulted adequately" on the project

Liz Peretz, from Keep Campsfield Closed, said such facilities "create misery".

"They create mental health problems... they're extremely expensive and they don't do what it says on the tin," she said.

She said it would also be "cowardly" for the government to bypass "the proper democratic route for planning permission".

"It suggests that they think they won't get it through planning permission so oh they'll find a loophole so they can get it through themselves and build what they want, come what may," she added.

Home Office said Crown Development applications "still require extensive consultation of the local planning authority and planning consent will be obtained" before the project proceeds to its second phase.