A DATE was set yesterday for Home Office officials to come to Fareham to talk to civic chiefs about the proposal to build an asylum seekers' centre at HMS Daedalus.

A three-strong delegation including Home Office project manager Jon Payne, a planning consultant and an acquisitions consultant, will travel to the town's civic offices on May 9.

The meeting is scheduled just days before the government is due to announce whether to go ahead with the controversial scheme to house 400 male asylum seekers at the former airbase.

Now Fareham's council leader Sean Woodward is hoping it will not be too late to persuade the government to scrap the centre at Lee-on-the-Solent altogether.

"I am pleased that the Home Office has at long last agreed to meet Fareham Borough Council to discuss this important issue.

"We will be meeting their delegation before the decision is effectively taken and I hope that, as well as meeting us to explain their proposals they will also listen to our views."

The long-awaited secret meeting comes after Cllr Woodward called for the council to be included in any consultation.

Since the government announced the site was a front runner for an asylum seekers' centre it has only had dealings with Gosport council.

This is despite 80 per cent of the MoD-owned land falling within Fareham's boundary.

Councillor Arthur Mandry, the council's representative on the Daedalus Action Group and chief executive officer Alan Davies will attend the meeting.

John Beavis, chairman of the Daedalus Action Group said: "I am delighted the Home Office is at last making an effort to involve Fareham.

"Although the actual centre is proposed to go up on the part of the site that falls within Gosport it is only right and proper that Fareham is consulted."

Last month Gosport council bosses met Home Office officials at a Croydon Immigration Office in a similar meeting behind closed doors.