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Date submitted

6 August 2026

Submitted by

Interested party

Dear Planning Inspectorate I am writing to object to the proposed expansion of Haslar Immigration Removal Centre. The application number is CROWN /2026/0000005 I oppose because the proposal would expand Haslar into a 600 bed detention centre,adding up to 470 additional detention places before the refurbished 130-bed centre has even been reopened or been tested in practice. Home office data shows that around a quarter of IRC beds are unoccupied, and also that half of people detained should not even have been there. So where is the evidence that this expansion is even needed? A better way of spending money would be to find a way of speeding up the decision process for asylum seekers, employing and training more people in the Home office to deal with applications with kindness, compassion and acuracy. Everyone should have the right to claim asylum and there are very few safe and legal routes to do this. I am responding as a person who is a volunteer at an Asylum seeker and Refugee charity and someone who believes that people should be treated with compassion when fleeing from war and desperate circumstances. I know from hearing peoples stories that immigration detention causes serious harm to the people held there. Apart from these points there is a high risk of flooding in this area. The Flood risk assessment says that the site is partly in Flood zone 3 and is at risk of surface water flooding.As a locked, secure detention centre this makes Haslar a place that would be difficult for people to leave in the event of a flood warning. I live near to Gosport and i know from experience that the traffic in Gosport is already extremely busy. There are very few routes to get on and leave the penninsula.The increase in traffic would be extremely difficult for Gosport people to cope with during the building of this expansion and also during its operation. For these reasons i oppose the expansion I would like to attend a hearing