Asylum military base housing documents published

7 hours ago

The planning proposal at the Bicester base has been fast tracked due to being "nationally important and urgent"

BBC The gates outside MOD Bicester Site A. A security guard is patrolling behind gates and a barbed wire fence. — The planning proposal at the Bicester base has been fast tracked due to being "nationally important and urgent"

The government has released documents relating to its "urgent" plans to build asylum seekers' accommodation on a former military base.

The Home Office is proposing to convert existing buildings and provide accommodation for up to 1,256 men at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) site near Bicester, Oxfordshire.

It has made an Urgent Crown Development application, a special procedure to fast track the process due to its "national importance".

Calum Miller, MP for Bicester and Woodstock, called on Prime Minister Andy Burnham on his Commons debut on Tuesday to publish the plans, which he claimed had been "veiled in secrecy".

After their release the Liberal Democrat MP said: "These documents lay bare why MOD Bicester is the wrong site for this proposal.

"The site has never previously had accommodation. It has no safe transport, no water supply, no electricity or gas."

He added: "The government said their application was urgent yet made us wait seven weeks to see it... the taxpayer, local residents and those seeking asylum deserve better than a proposal of this scale being pushed through without full information and full local consultation.

"Ministers must stop these plans."

Labour has pledged to stop using hotels, a costly form of accommodation that has become a focal point for anti-migrant protests.

As of March this year, 20,885 (21%) asylum seekers were in hotels and 72,768 (75%) were in other accommodation as they awaited decisions.

In 2005, the then Labour government abandoned plans for an asylum seekers accommodation centre on the same site.

Protesters previously gathered in the centre of Bicester to oppose the plans

A crowd of people in a high street, with several banners and union flags flying — Protesters previously gathered in the centre of Bicester to oppose the plans

A factsheet published online by the Home Office said the site would provide "basic, safe accommodation" and would be designed to be "largely self‑sufficient to minimise any impact on the local community".

The application refers to the "provision of space for associated health and welfare facilities", a "waste water treatment plant", "roads, access ways, security infrastructure, parking, staff accommodation and facilities, and open space and recreational areas".

The proposal says it is "initially for a period of 10 years", though the facilities are being designed to operate for longer if required.

Once operations conclude, the site will be decommissioned, the documents say.

Two separate groups gathered in Bicester town centre to protest against the plans last month, with some raising safety concerns about using the base.

Oxfordshire Stand Up to Racism called for the processing of asylum claims to be made "more efficient".

On 25 June, the Home Office wrote that as it "ramps up" closures of asylum hotels across the UK, the government was instead "scaling up the use of large, basic accommodation for illegal migrants".

"As part of this, discussions are under way to use three new sites to house asylum seekers, with planning permission being sought at MoD Bicester, MoD Barnham and MoD Linton-on-Ouse," it added.

The sites could house about 3,750 asylum seekers if planning permission is granted.