CROWN/2026/0000005 David Wakefield
- Date submitted
- 4 August 2026
- Submitted by
- Interested party
Being a resident who lives █████████████████████ Haslar site, myself, my wife and my family have had to endue the vast amount of work going on within the centre for the past few years, which has been anything more than straight forward and has caused distress amongst the many residents living in close proximity and other residents in property very close at hand. Having attended an initial meeting held at Stokes Bay Golf Course over 2 years ago, I and others who attended were very unhappy in the way the presentation was put forward, with those who presented the proposals being from areas such as London and who had no idea as to the logistics of this area, the make up of many hundreds of houses close bye, nor the fact that there was a disused Naval Base further down the coast line that would be better suited, with no surrounding residential properties anywhere near close. They were unable to answer why this particular site had been chosen in the first place, considering the amount of disused MOD establishments around the country, nor did it seem to bother them. Residents left this meeting no more informed of the way forward than before they attended, in fact, the plans back then were for 130 immigrants. Fast forward 2 years, I for one, along with my wife and family have to endure daily verbal abuse from the work force going to and from the site, acting in a manner than was totally inappropriate. Add to this, many of them would park outside our houses early in the morning, sometimes as early as 5.45am, with their windows open and music blearing out. Rubbish being thrown all over the roads, leaving the area looking like a site from the Blitz back in the 40's. I know, from talking first hand with other residents that their health has suffered with the amount of dust that has been coming from the site on a daily basis and all issues became so bad that we had a spokes person from the local residents here, who ended up representing us all and having weekly meetings with the management from the site, who often found it difficult to contain the way in which the contacted work force behaved. As rumours went around about there being a Phase 2 development being put forward, again without any consultation with us, it got so out of hand locally that an updated meeting had to be arranged to show these proposals. Now we were looking at a rise of over 300% more inmates being housed in this centre, going from 130 to 600, yes 300%, how anyone could come to that conclusion, on a site that has already cost in excess of £120,000,000 and expect another £120,000,000 plus to be spent, which could be put to be use looking after the homeless is beyond believe. A couple of things to consider here is the affect this build would have █████████████████████████████ such a ludicrous construction are: Constructing four 3 storey accommodation blocks that reach a height of over 12 metres in front of my house and the others at close quarters, would take away daylight, sunlight and most of all our privacy, living us in a position of being overlooked both during the day and at night time. A number of redevelopment projects expected to begin shortly may well be scrapped when knowing that accommodation is being built for over 600 Immigrants and viability of selling would be greatly reduced. Not only are we talking about the 600 inmates being held there, but one would have to include the work force to look after them all and I have been told that would be in access of 450 (I wonder what that wage bill would add up to on an annual basis), where are they likely to park, with insufficient spaces at the moment and no doubt access to the site will be a 24 hour thing, I'm sure it won't be long before we see movements at all hours outside our houses. The application has indicated that people will arrive and leave or even be released at anytime throughout the day/night, which again will cause a disturbance to us, living within feet of the site. I understand the current trend at the moment is Immigration Bail, and no clear guidelines have been set out by the Home Office, so again, how will this area be addressed. Lighting is another area that will have a massive effect on myself and my wife, as it has been suggested that lighting opposite my house will be on 24 hours a day. Communication between the Home Office, Construction Site personnel and developers has been appalling, living us all very disillusioned with the whole affair and a number of residents now looking to get away have found it impossible to sell as their house prices have dropped dramatically. As mentioned, the decision making has been poor and the three-storey buildings put forward in stage 2 were never included in the original plans put forward to us residents, so to increase the number by over 300% from 130 t0 600 is immoral and important documents and drawings were and still remain withheld and heavily redacted. An area of concern that I cannot understand, is how this application is being considered nationally through the Crown Development process by people who have no dealings with the area, are most likely unaware of the hundreds of dwellings close bye being affected, the unbelievable agony it has caused us all over the past 2 years, rather than processing it through the normal means of Gosport Borough Council. my question there being, have the Home Office been open and honest on why this is going to take place, as it looks rathe suspect from the outside and are the Home Office willing to hold a full public inquiry so that evidence can be examined properly. As I said, it has been heartbreak for myself, my wife and family over the past two years with no consideration shown for the neighbouring house holders. Having to endure any further upheaval by allowing phase t two to even be considered would make me question the Home Office decision.