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Date submitted

2 August 2026

Submitted by

Interested party

I object to the proposed expansion of Haslar Immigration Removal Centre. The application reference is CROWN/2026/0000005. The proposal would expand Haslar into a 600-bed detention centre, adding hundreds of additional detention places in a hasty and ill-conceived approach. Expanding Haslar would have serious human and community consequences both for the local community and for the people detained there. Rushing this misguided proposal could cause significant and avoidable harm to vulnerable people, who are not adequately cared for or supported to rebuild their lives, with minimal facilities and a lack of joined-up and compassionate thinking. It is important people are housed in circumstances and conditions that value their human rights and capacity to recover, integrate, and contribute to our communities. The majority of people who are detained are later released back into the community, and the process seems likely to retraumatise them at great expense, for no rational purpose. I am concerned about the scale of the expansion, local impact on traffic, parking, healthcare and emergency services, public access to the coast, ecology, heritage, lighting, noise, waste, drainage and local infrastructure. The Home Office has not shown why so many additional detention places are needed at Haslar specifically, or why existing capacity, alternatives to detention, or other estate options would not be sufficient. Haslar has not reopened, so there is no operational evidence showing how the refurbished centre would work in practice. I am concerned that this facility will keep people who have come to the UK escaping from very dangerous situations in inhumane and inadequate conditions, which will have a negative impact on their mental and physical health, without adequate services to support them or help them to recover and rebuild their lives. I am concerned that the Home Office has applied for outline planning permission, with only access being decided at this stage. The public is being asked to comment on whether Haslar should become a 600-bed detention centre before the practical details are finalised. Some information has been withheld or treated as sensitive, making it difficult to understand the full impact of the proposal. Immigration detention causes serious harm to people detained there, and the effects are felt by families, communities, legal and advice services, health services and local people. I am concerned about flood risk, coastal safety, emergency evacuation and climate change. Haslar is a coastal site next to the Solent, and parts of the site are in Flood Zone 3, meaning there is a high risk of flooding from the sea. Climate change makes this more serious. People detained at Haslar would not be free to leave if there was a flood warning, severe weather, a failure of flood defences or another emergency. The Planning Inspectorate should not approve this application. For these reasons, I ask that the application is refused. If it is not refused at this stage, I ask that it is examined through a full public inquiry. I would be interested in attending a hearing.