Renfrewshire Council has welcomed a Home Office decision not to appeal councillors’ rejection of planning permission for a new immigration detention centre near Glasgow Airport.
Gavin Newlands, SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North also welcomed the decision.
At a meeting of the council’s Planning and Property Policy Board in November members unanimously refused an application to establish the facility.
Councillors considered the proposal from Arora Management Services to create a centre with 20 bedrooms and ancillary accommodation, which the Home Office would have used as a short term holding facility, was contrary to the area’s local development plan.
The Home Office has confirmed that it will not appeal councillors’ decision.
Renfrewshire Council Leader Mark Macmillan said: “We are pleased the Home Office has accepted the decision made by councillors and will not seek to have it overturned.
“There was clear concern the proposed facility would be detrimental to the economic development of the Glasgow Airport Investment Area, which is one of the key economic drivers both for Renfrewshire and our wider Glasgow City Region.
“Members of the Planning and Property Policy Board agreed that there was no established identifiable functional link between the proposal and the airport’s operations.
“The proposed facility’s location in a commercial and industrial area would also have introduced an inappropriate use through the attendant noise, activity and disturbance.”
MP Gavin Newlands said: “Delighted that plans to build a replacement for Dungavel detention centre near Glasgow Airport have been abandoned.
“Well done to all who stood firm and said that Renfrewshire will not be part of this inhumane system.
“Still need to convince UK government that detention is not the answer.”