THE Lord Chancellor's department wants to press ahead with plans for an asylum appeals centre in Newport -despite opposition from residents, MPs and Assembly Mem-bers.

The Immigration Appell-ates Authority (IAA) appeals centre was due to open on December 2 at Columbus House in Langstone.

The opening was stalled after a last-minute planning objection from Newport City Council.

On December 20 a Crown spokesman told the Argus it was considering ditching the plan, even though it does not have to abide by any planning objection made by the city council.

Objectors said the appeals centre would be far better suited to the city centre. We can now reveal that the Crown has written to the National Assembly saying it wants to proceed with the centre. It plans to contest the city council's objection, which was on change of use grounds - the building is on a business park.

The Lord Chancellor's department does not need anyone's permission to go ahead with its plan but in practice, as proved in other areas of the UK, is likely to try to get some degree of local agreement to the plan.

A spokesman for the Lord Chancellor's department said: "We have written to the Assembly to notify them of our decision and are awaiting confirmation of the process they wish to adopt for dealing with this issue."

Newport East MP Alan Howarth reacted to the move angrily, saying: "We will fight on to get this project moved to a more appropriate location.

"The IAA has obviously come under two lots of pressure, one of which is that they spent some considerable sum of money on renovating Columbus House.

"The other pressure they are feeling are the unprocessed asylum appeals which are no doubt mounting up ."

A spokesman for residents' group Langstone Action, Brian Bolshaw, said: "The battle is just beginning for us. Langstone Action recognised that there would be a number of rounds before this fight is over. It's still early stages but we fully expect to be there when the final bell goes."

Newport East Assembly Member John Griffiths said: "I will seek a meeting with Sue Essex, the planning minister here at the Assembly, to express my disappointment with the UK government for ignoring the facts and common sense of the objections.

"I will also make sure she is aware of the arguments that prove Langstone to be an entirely unsuitable location for these courts."

The Langstone centre would hear appeals from asylum seekers who want to stay in Britain but would not be residential.

PICTURED: Brian Bolshaw, of the residents group Langstone Action, outside Columbus House where it is proposed to establish an asylum appeals centre.