Daily Mail
January 19, 2014
![Campsfield House Detention Centre in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, now has a new astroturf pitch Campsfield House Detention Centre in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, now has a new astroturf pitch](/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Campsfield-House-Detention-Centre-in-Kidlington-Oxfordshire-now-has-a-new-astroturf-pitch_thumb.jpg)
Failed asylum seekers have been given an £80,000 astroturf football pitch paid for by taxpayers as schools are forced to sell their own grounds.
Asylum seekers got their own sports facility at Campsfield House, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, to use while they are waiting to be deported.
While struggling schools are selling their own facilities to pay for improvements, the 216 men at the centre also have a fitness suite, IT centre, library and are given money for winning sports competitions.
Banbury Academy, which is near to the centre, is selling its playing fields to developers for £750,000 so it can afford to build a new sports hall and an all-weather pitch for students.
The school says selling the playing fields is the only way to fund ‘desperately-needed’ improvements.
![Banbury Academy, which is near to the centre, is selling its playing fields to developers for £750,000 Banbury Academy, which is near to the centre, is selling its playing fields to developers for £750,000](/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Banbury-Academy-which-is-near-to-the-centre-is-selling-its-playing-fields-to-developers-for-75001.jpg)
According to the Sun, North Kidlington primary is holding jumble sales to fund a new play area and children at Bletchingdon primary have to walk 800 yards to a village hall for PE lessons.
UKIP campaigner Paul Nuttal told the Sun he thought the money spent at the detention centre was wrong.
He said: ‘While services are stretched to breaking point, taxpayers are forking out so illegal immigrants can have a good kickabout.’
Last summer, it emerged that 50 playing fields had been sold off over the last three years in what was labelled a ‘threat to our Olympic legacy’.
On average, 17 are closed every year, most in Conservative local authorities.