IMMIGRATION CENTRE PLANNING PERMISSION REFUSED

Last night Crawley Borough Council Development Control Committee rejected by 14 votes to 1 the planning application by Arora International Hotels Ltd. for permission to convert the 254 bed Mercure Hotel in Povey Cross Road, Crawley into an immigration detention centre.

On Monday 25th January Arora's planning application to turn their four star hotel at Gatwick into a detention centre was defeated by 14 votes to 1 at Crawley Council's Planning Meeting.

No Border activists held a demo outside Crawley Town Hall before the meeting and a number went into the meeting.

More articles on Arora : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Radio Interview on Arora | Press Release 26 January | Indymedia report 26th January| Crawley News report 27th January

Radio Interview (by Radio Free Brighton) with people from NoBorders Brighton about the planned conversion of the Gatwick Arora Hotel into an "Immigration Removel Centre" (25 January 2010)

* requires support for the free vorbis audio codec, you will need Firefox 3.5+ to listen to the interview.

PRESS RELEASE ***FOR IMMEDIATE DISSEMINATION***

STARTS:

The attached statement in opposition to the planning application by Arora International Hotels Ltd. for a change of use of the Mercure Hotel, Povey Cross Road, Crawley, allowing its conversion into an Immigration Removal Centre, has been sent to all 37 Crawley Borough Councillors and to Laura Moffet MP for Crawley. The nature of this planning application and the exisitng structure means that any resulting detention centre could only be used to hold families and children.

On Monday 25th January London No Borders and No Borders Brighton are calling for a protest outside Crawley Town Hall (The Boulevard, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 1UZ) at 6.30pm to protest against Arora International's plans to turn its four-star hotel at Gatwick, Mercure, into yet another immigration prison.

More Articels on Arora : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Radio Interview on Arora | Press Release 26 January

Mercure Hotel Protest - Statement By Participants

Today Monday 11th Janaury a group of 10 people from Brighton No Borders took part in a peaceful protest at the Mercure Hotel, Povey Cross Road, Crawley, demonstrating against Arora Hotels International Ltd.’s plans to turn the 254-bed four-star Mercure hotel into the third immigration detention centre in the Gatwick area.

(you will need firefox 3.5 or newer to watch this video)

Six activists from No Borders London today (06 Oct 2009) held a protest at the Arora International Hotel near Heathrow airport against Arora International's plans to turn its four-star hotel at Gatwick, Mercure, into yet another immigration prison.

Related Articles: Protest against Arora's detention plan