03/04/2009

Go-Ahead For Asylum Detention Centre

Plans for Europe's largest immigration detention centre have today been given the green-light.

Bullingdon Detention Centre near Bicester, which will be situated across the road from Bullingdon Prison.

Around 500 jobs will be created as a result of the construction of the centre, which will hold up to 800 men.

Members of Cherwell District Council's planning committee voted by nine to three, with one abstention, to approve the UK Border Agency’s plan for the centre.

Planning consent had been delayed until concerns the site was prone to flooding were investigated.

The centre, which will be built on former Ministry of Defence land between Piddington and Arncott, will be designed and secured to the same standard as a Category C prison.

This means detainees – failed asylum seekers or illegal immigrants awaiting deportation - would be locked inside.

(JM/BMcC)

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