Council claims asylum centre could cost it £29m

Norfolk County Council has formally objected to plans to use RAF Barnham as an asylum processing centre, claiming it could cost the authority as much as £29.8m over the next 10 years.

In a letter to the home secretary, council leader David Bick said: "Please do listen and take our concerns seriously. We are listening to what the local communities are telling us, and you should too."

Although the former military base is in Suffolk, it is close to Thetford in Norfolk and the Reform UK-run authority says having an asylum centre there would put a strain on local services.

A government spokesman said it was working on a fairer distribution of asylum accommodation across the country.

The government is yet to submit a formal application to use the base, but it is considering using the site to house up to 1,250 men while their applications for asylum are processed.

Bick's letter to the Home Office added: "There is no public service or local community support for the creation of a large asylum accommodation site in this location – it is the wrong proposal, at the wrong site.

"We are extremely concerned about the impact that your plans could have on the communities we serve.

"Although the site is in the county of Suffolk, the impact will very much be felt in Norfolk.

"The nearest town and centre of population is just two miles away in Thetford... impacting on the health system, police, the fire and rescue service and wider public services."

He quotes from a report presented to the council cabinet this week which estimates that having the centre open for the next 10 years, which is what the government is intending, could cost between £9.16m and £29.8m.

The report concedes that there are few detailed plans for the site and no detailed information about the level and type of wrap-around support that the council would have to provide.

But it suggests potential pressures could include safeguarding and service provision, greater use of library services and demands for more language skills and transport.

The report estimates that "wider integration support" would cost between £300,000 and £1.5m every year, the cost to Norfolk Fire and Rescue would be between £50,000 and £1m a year and £50,000 to £150,000 a year would be spent on "community resilience and safety".

Presenting the report to the cabinet, Scott Hussey, a Reform UK councillor who is the cabinet member for public health, said: "There's very likely to be a high turnover of young men, so in my view the figures presented in the report are likely to be a considerable underestimate of the total cost to the council."

He added that the grant paid by the Home Office to fund support for asylum seekers goes to the authority in which the site sits, so Norfolk County Council was unlikely to receive any grant.

The government says it wants to use military camps because it takes asylum seekers out of hotels, which were expensive and their use was unpopular with local people.

It is also extending the use of existing military camps like Crowborough in Sussex and Wethersfield in Essex.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'We continue to explore the use of MOD Barnham for asylum accommodation.

"The government is working on a fairer distribution of asylum accommodation across the country, with over £1 billion saved in costs since the election.

"This includes closing all asylum hotels and moving to alternative accommodation, including former military sites.

"These are designed to be self-contained, with 24/7 security and CCTV, to reduce the impact on local communities."

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