Dorset Council and Dorset Police have criticised the Home Office for not answering key questions about plans to house asylum seekers on a barge in Portland Port.

The Government plans to house 500 refugees on a barge off the Dorset coast as part of the effort to move 51,000 asylum seekers out of costly hotels.

However, both the council and police have concerns about the impact the move will have on local services and where the funding for extra security will come from.

Cllr Spencer Flower, leader of Dorset Council, said the local authority has ‘serious reservations’ about the plan and ‘unanswered questions’.

David Sidwick, Police and Crime Commissioner, added: ‘I would like to reassure Dorset residents that Dorset Police have started the necessary and detailed planning required to ensure both asylum seekers and residents will be kept safe. Currently though, they also have detailed questions that need answering and that are necessary to ensure the safety of all concerned.’

Portland mayor Pete Roper has previously criticised the Government’s plan because of the extra pressure the move will place on local services.

In an exchange in Parliament in April, South Dorset MP Richard Drax said it had been ‘imposed’ on the local area and was ‘a potential landmine into a highly restricted port’.

A Home Office spokesperson today said: ‘We have been clear that the use of hotels to house asylum seekers is unacceptable – there are currently more than 51,000 asylum seekers in hotels costing the UK taxpayer £6m a day.

‘We have to use alternative accommodation options, as our European neighbours are doing – including the use of barges and ferries to save the British taxpayer money.’