Council approves plans to double the size of Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre

Plans to double the size of an immigration removal centre were approved, a council said today.

The new wing at the Yarl's Wood centre will have room for 492 men who have failed to win asylum or who have finished a prison sentence and are waiting to be deported.

A report submitted to Bedford Borough Council said the centre would have a sports hall, medical centre and library.

But to avoid the security breaches that led to part of the original complex being destroyed by a riot and a fire in 2002, the new centre has been built to the specifications of a category B prison.

It will have a 15ft-high chain link fence and individual cells for those waiting to be deported.

Work can start on the new complex after councillors at the authority approved plans at a meeting last night.

A spokesman for the authority said: "Bedford Borough Council's planning committee has granted planning permission for an immigration removal centre at the Yarl's Wood site between Clapham and Milton Ernest.

"This is in response to the application by the Home Office UK Border Agency after the original detention centre on the site was destroyed by fire in 2002."

A UK Border Agency spokesman said: "The UK Border Agency is delighted with the council's decision to grant planning permission for the Yarl's Wood, Bedford Immigration Removal Centre.

"Expanding the detention estate is a critical part of UKBA plans to increase the removal of those who have no legal basis to stay in the UK and the fast removal of those who come to the UK and commit serious crimes.

"Last year we removed a record 66,275 people including nearly 5,400 foreign national prisoners."