Local MP against plans for an asylum seeker centre in North Yorkshire
The Government's earmarked the former RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse as a site
The MP for Thirsk, Malton and Filey says a centre for asylum seekers in a rural part of North Yorkshire is not the right place for it.
Kevin Hollinrake lives nearby and has been explaining why he is against plans for the former RAF base at Linton-on Ouse, which the government has earmarked as a site.
He has written to the Home Office to outline his concerns as up to 1,500 potential immigrants could be housed at the base.
Kevin Hollinrake said: "I'm not a nimby at all but clearly if it's up to 1,500 young adult males who will be housed in this facility eventually, not initially but growing overtime, this is a village of just over a thousand people.
"It's quite clear that Home Office guidance is that these kind of facilities for asylum seekers should be located in major accommodations and they should have access to other towns and cities. Linton-on-Ouse does not fit that bill. There's lots of concerns in the community and I have lots of concerns too.
"I accept that a facility has to go somewhere and I don't think at the end of the day anything can be done to stop it. If I had been able to write a shopping list of all the things I wanted that base to be used for, number one would not have been an asylum processing centre for 1,500 young adult males.
"Whether you're 18 to 40, you want a bit of life don't you? You want to get out and about and even though there are leisure facilities on site, even though there's security at the gate, the worry is out of 1,500 there might be some bad apples in the barrel."