In his letter, Samuel Kurtz warned that any move to repurpose the site would have serious implications for national defence and local services. “Castlemartin is one of the United Kingdom’s few facilities capable of hosting live firing exercises at battlegroup level,” he said. After the concerns were raised, the Local Democracy Reporting Service contacted the Home Office for a response to concerns raised. Amid protests from inside and outside its gates, the camp housed up to 250 asylum seekers at the height of its occupancy. After the last of the asylum seekers departed, it was handed back to the MoD by the Home Office, who had previously repurposed it; the camp itself closed in late 2022.