A 600-YEAR-OLD fort in a quiet seaside city may grow to be a migrant lodge underneath plans to rehouse asylum seekers.
The UK’s oldest “sea fort” in Gosport, Hampshire, is a disused navy web site which dates again to the fifteenth century and was shut down in 2021.
SolentFort Blockhouse, by Portsmouth Harbour, is reportedly being thought of to deal with migrants because the Authorities strikes them from lodges[/caption]
SolentThe UK’s oldest “sea fort” in Gosport, Hampshire, is a disused navy web site[/caption]
SolentThe 52-acre web site is dwelling to 3 blockhouses (small defensive forts)[/caption]
Gary StoneDefence Secretary John Healey is contemplating utilizing navy websites to deal with asylum seekers briefly[/caption]
As a part of a pledge to finish using taxpayer-funded migrant lodges, the Authorities is all navy websites to determine in the event that they might be used as various lodging.
When Defence Minister Luke Pollard was requested if Fort Blockhouse could also be used to deal with migrants, he refused to rule it out.
He stated: “As each Authorities division can contribute one thing to this effort [to tackle the small boats crisis], it’s proper that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) does so.”
Final week, he stated all websites are being reviewed: “We’re all of the navy websites that the MoD has.
“A few of these have been visited by the Residence Workplace previously, each underneath this Authorities and particularly underneath the earlier administration.
“The precedence now will not be solely to course of the asylum candidates that weren’t being accomplished underneath the final Authorities, that we’re dashing up, however to shut the asylum lodges.
“So to try this, we’ve received to offer momentary and enough lodging.”
The 52-acre web site is dwelling to 3 blockhouses (small defensive forts).
There may be additionally a blockhouse used for a museum and one used as a boatyard for a crusing membership.
When the outdated navy web site was lively as a submarine base, it employed 2,500 folks.
It was constructed up over 5 centuries, beginning in 1431. It served as one of many south coast’s greatest forts till 1905.
It then turned the house of the Navy’s submarine service.
In 2016, when the MoD checked out promoting the positioning, it was touted as a possible vacationer hotspot or lodge.
Then two years in the past, it was reported that Fort Blockhouse might be used for “residential properties together with marine employment“.
Dame Caroline Dineage, the Tory MP for Gosport, slammed the preposition for the historic web site to now be used for various migrant lodging.
She stated it could be a “horrible end result” if asylum seekers had been to be housed within the “distinctive and particular asset”.
It comes after the disastrous Bibby Stockholm barge, utilized by the Tories to deal with migrants, was shut down after being moored at Portland Port in Dorset for 2 years.
Each the general public and Labour MPs extensively criticised the barge’s use.
The enormous vessel housed 500 asylum seekers and reportedly supplied en-suite rooms with a gymnasium, cinema room, sports activities pitch and restaurant.
A price-for-money evaluation claimed an evening within the Bibby Stockholm price £120 whereas a lodge was £140.
Begin-up prices for the Bibby Stockholm totalled £22million.
Ministers purchased the barge, moored off Portland, Dorset, to chop the £8million-a-day lodge price to taxpayers.
However a myriad of horror tales emerged within the two years it was in use.
The heartbroken household of Leonard Farruku, a 27-year-old man from Albania, slammed the controversial barge after he died.
He paid €4,000 to cross the English Channel in a small boat to reach within the nation.
However he was discovered unresponsive in a bathe cubicle onboard in December 2023.
An inquest into his dying heard he had struggled together with his psychological well being because the dying of his dad and mom and he discovered situations on the barge “very troublesome”.
He was reportedly in a “state of misery” shortly earlier than he died.
Individually, a migrant on the barge reportedly sexually assaulted a girl on a close-by seaside.
Two others reportedly sexually assaulted a girl in a membership 4 miles from the place the barge was moored.
One other went on the run after being caught with medicine.
One bus agency even refused to move asylum seekers from a lodge to the barge as a result of it feared damaging publicity amid protests.
Stories from contained in the barge claimed it was a “floating jail” – with some refusing to board and “squeeze into the small house”.
New Residence Secretary Shabana Mahmood is swapping migrants from lodges to navy barracks and scholar halls.
She has been ordered by the PM to “get a grip” on the small boats disaster, in response to The Sunday Telegraph.
Dozens of asylum lodges are anticipated to shut after they turned the focus of a number of demonstrations in latest months.
Defence Secretary John Healey is contemplating utilizing navy websites to deal with asylum seekers briefly, he confirmed.
It comes as Brits fumed after studies surfaced exhibiting migrants dwelling it up on the expense of the taxpayer and mounting protests exterior lodges housing asylum seekers.
This summer season additionally noticed lots of of disgruntled Brits line their streets with the St George’s flag to reassert their patriotism.
SolentWhen the outdated navy web site was lively as a submarine base, it employed 2,500 folks[/caption]
ReutersIt comes after the disastrous Bibby Stockholm barge, utilized by the Tories to deal with migrants, was shut down after being moored at Portland Port in Dorset for 2 years[/caption]
AlamyThe Bell Lodge in Epping, Essex, was the positioning of a number of huge protests after it emerged asylum seekers had been being housed there[/caption]