Clash over asylum centre plans

The Home Office disperses asylum seekers around the UK

Councillors in Edinburgh are being recommended to snub plans to accommodate several hundred asylum seekers on the site of a former RAF air base.

Turnhouse is one of eight possible locations around the UK being considered to house asylum seekers.

But the council was angered last month when the plan only emerged because of consultations between Immigration and Asylum Minister Lord Rooker and Edinburgh West MP John Barrett.

Councillors are expected to sanction a suspension of any talks with the National Asylum Support Service.

We need a degree of partnership between ourselves and the Home Office

Council leader Donald Anderson

A council report raises worries about the housing, health and social work implications of such a centre.

It also suggests police are concerned about the likely impact on resources.

Council leader Donald Anderson said: "We've been keen to discharge our responsibility fully in terms of asylum seekers.

"In order to do that - as it is a sensitive situation - we need a degree of partnership between ourselves and the Home Office.

'Provisional' plan

"And the way this has come out has got that off to a bad start."

Mr Anderson voiced his displeasure at what he described as a "major oversight".

But a Home Office spokesman said: "It's not a matter of consultation, it's a matter of informing local authorities of the department's plans.

"But the Edinburgh site is only a provisional one and we haven't begun talking to authorities about plans as no decisions have yet been made."