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ON 17 February 2023, Southport MP, Damien Moore, has again brought up the issues over plans to house 3,000 asylum seekers, at Southport Pontins, that have been reported to have been shelved by the Home Office.

It had been reported that the holiday camp, located on the outskirts of outside Southport, Merseyside, had been looked at by the Home Office as an alternative to hotel accommodation in which to house asylum seekers waiting for their claims to be assessed.

Sefton Council is understood to have raised a number of objections, to the proposed use of the facility. The main being the logistics of accessing the site and the impact on the tourism industry within the area.

People arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and the Home Office is increasingly under mounting pressure to set up such a center.

According to Sefton Council, who have been quoted within our weekly copy, and also within national media, that they have been:- ”informed that the Home Office no longer wishes to pursue plans to house asylum seekers at the Pontins site, in Ainsdale.” Yet still, no confirmation of this decision has been given by the Home Office.

With tensions at an all-time high on Merseyside, it was hoped that the Home Office would confirm its ruling out of the holiday venue, but it is increasingly unlikely we will see any formal statement issued.

The latest statement from the Conservative MP, Damien Moore, said:- “I’m deeply disappointed that no substantive response has yet been received from Sefton Council to my letter on 6 February, in which I asked them to publicly rule out allowing Pontins to be used as asylum accommodation for 2,500 people. In response to my question in Parliament on the same day, the Minister for Immigration made abundantly clear that it was Sefton Council who have the final sign-off on this matter, and that if they were to reject the proposal it would not go ahead. Southport residents, especially those in Ainsdale village, deserve clarity on this matter. I once again call on the Labour leadership of Sefton Council to confirm publicly today that they will not allow this proposal to go ahead."

The UK Government is faced with a mountain of extremely complex issues, and we have no definitive answer as to what they seem to think can be done to sort this mess out. To use a location like Pontins to house asylum seekers would still be extremely expensive. It would also be extremely damaging for the local area’s tourism, and that would hugely affect the local economy and exultantly jobs. Yet, to abandon plans in places like holiday parks, how can we, as a nation, protect an ever-growing influx of vulnerable people and remove those who are not genuine, whilst keeping costs down? Could these questions be why we have not had a “definitive answer” in writing?

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Liverpool (Gladstone)

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