Marga Chidlow, 89, says she already feels unsafe with the existing remand facility across the street from her Surrey, B.C., home. (CBC)

Angry neighbours living across the street from the site of Surrey, B.C.'s new remand centre promise a fight against the project, saying it will ruin their neighbourhood.

The new jail for Metro Vancouver was announced Wednesday, with plans to construct it next to Surrey City Hall, near the intersection of King George Highway and Highway 10.

A remand centre project planned for Burnaby was scrapped after fierce objection from community groups, who made it a key local issue during the spring provincial election campaign.

Similar objections are being heard from the Surrey neighbourhood.

"We have had so much trouble here," Marga Chidlow told CBC News.

Chidlow, 85, and her husband John have lived in the same Surrey house for 49 years. She said people released from the nearby police station and current remand facility, the Surrey Pretrial Centre, knock on their door at all hours.

"They come to nearest houses and they want a ride, a taxi, coffee," Chidlow said.

"Now we have bars on the windows, motion lights, alarm system," she said.

The new 180-cell corrections facility — capable of holding 360 people — will be connected by tunnel to both the adjacent provincial courthouse and the police station, which also share the the Municipal Centre site with the existing pretrial centre, B.C. Solicitor General Kash Heed said Wednesday.

Construction of the new facility is expected to be completed by 2013 as part of a $185-million province-wide upgrade of correction facilities.

The new remand facility will be used to hold people awaiting trial at courts in the Lower Mainland. The government has said the North Fraser Pretrial Centre in Port Coquitlam is overcrowded and a new jail closer to courthouses in Metro Vancouver is needed.

The existing Surrey Pretrial Centre is over-crowded and badly in need of expansion, says the B.C. government. (CBC)

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said the project will create 175 new jobs, and promised that a community advisory committee will be set up to deal with neighbourhood complaints.

"Any community issues will be dealt with. We'll make sure there are protocols in place and any issues will be mitigated," said Watts.

Neighbour Kulvinder Bhullar also said he has felt harassed by people coming out of the police station and remand centre.

"They are bringing all the criminals and leaving [them] on the roadside, and devalue our property," said Bhullar.

"They knock on door late [at] night and ask about money and to do a phone call, which is scary. I'm already spending about $10,000 on fencing," he said.

Bhullar the said the public should have had a say before the decision was made.

"We're going to 100 per cent oppose it. We'll ask Mrs. Watts, too, why she's allowing everything over here."