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Date submitted

23 July 2026

Submitted by

Interested party

I object to the expansion of Campsfield detention centre on the basis of the following concerns: - The rationale for the expansion is given as a matter of national security. Detaining migrants, removing them from their families, and imposing detention conditions managed by a company that has already been found to be highly negligent and damaging to detainees in execution of their duties is irresponsible and does nothing to protect our national security. On the contrary, it generates harm to people who have been victims of precisely the crimes the government says they are trying to prevent. Expanding an immigration detention centre cannot prevent illegal migration and as such, the basis for the expansion application is fundamentally flawed. - The redactions on cost mean the value for money of the development cannot be evaluated by the public, significantly infringing their right to fully informed participation in the process. - the engagement report does not give a satisfactory response to residents’ concerns about adequate consultation. Given the history of the detention centre is that it was closed down because of long-standing and significant local concerns, and that these concerns were borne out by reports about the immigration detention centre and its management generating harmful effects on those detained, and given that local residents continue to express concern about the standards in the centre, as evidenced in the engagement report, it is imperative that residents are given adequate voice to express their concerns and have them properly responded to. This cannot happen under the current Crown Development route. - The site will almost double in size, with corresponding impacts on the surrounding environment, neighbourhood and community. These impacts are not clearly evaluated in the consultation documents. Rather, they are estimated or anticipated because they cannot be known fully in advance. Proper consultation with residence about noise impact, traffic and infrastructure implications, and the lived experience of being adjacent to such a huge expansion, particularly in light of the additional developments that are being planned close by, is essential. The current development route should be switched to a formal and full public consultation as soon as possible. - The reports on noise impact, ecological impact and infrastructural effects are inadequate for an effective reading by the public, full of jargon and technicalities that do not explain the detail of the assessments and the measures used in a way that is accessible to all those affected. Again, this is rights-infringing since even the public comment permitted in the Crown Development planning route cannot be fully effective under these conditions. Consequently, the Campsfield consultation process should be halted, reintroduced with appropriate documentation for public view and understanding, and any and all development of the site should be stopped.