Oxfordshire village votes to leave UK over asylum housing plan

Residents of an Oxfordshire village have voted to become independent of the UK in a symbolic referendum held in protest at plans to house more than 1,000 migrants at a former military base.

Villagers in Piddington, near Bicester, voted on Tuesday over Home Office proposals to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers at nearby MoD Bicester.

The referendum was organised by the parish council and out of 312 votes cast, 285 voted to leave, 26 voted no, and one ballot paper was spoiled.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told BBC Breakfast the government would not reconsider the migrant housing proposal.

Piddington's 350 residents were invited to cast their ballot in a small box outside the village hall.

Delivering the result, parish council vice chair Susannah Parden said: "We are Piddington the village that roars."

Parish council chair Tim McNally added: "This is an example of democracy in operation.

"We went into this village hall as the underdogs - we had a plucky idea. We have given a message to the world."

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he understood the village's "strength of feeling", but there needed to be fairness across the country.

"The only thing to do is to get the numbers down, the number of crossings down," he said. "And they are significantly down. They are now at a seven-year low.

"We also made a commitment to people to end the use of hotels to house refugees and asylum seekers, and that commitment needs to be honoured, and I think the vast majority of people say 'yeah, that really does need to proceed'.

"So this involves difficult decisions. It's about fairness across the country. I'm not saying that only one part of the country or one group of communities should do all of the work."

Nandy said that reconsidering the MoD Bicester plan would not be fair.

"The alternative would be to ask communities who have already seen their local community quadruple in size to take more of the load - and I think that's deeply unfair," she said.

Nandy said Piddington was "not actually" unusual, adding: "In my constituency there are particular streets where that has happened to the community."

But she said the government was listening to the Piddington campaigners.

"I do really understand that when changes are made that affect your community, it can be very distressing.

"We inherited an enormous asylum backlog; we are processing claims much more quickly, and we are removing people who don't have the right to be here.

"Small boat crossings fell this summer for the first time in many years because of the action we have taken.

"While we get a grip on the asylum chaos that we inherited, we do need to make sure that we live up to our obligations and house people coming to this country seeking safety."

Women in the village said "life as we know it will be destroyed" if the plans went ahead.

More than 130 female residents have written to every female Member of Parliament to share their concerns.

"As fellow women, you will understand the serious risks this will expose us to. Our safety, our security and our freedoms will be under threat.

"We will not feel safe walking our streets," they said.

Local politicians and charities have said they were "astounded" by the government's proposals and said the location was not suitable for such use.

Hari Reed, from the Oxfordshire-based charity Asylum Welcome, said: "They [asylum seekers] will be distant from the kind of support that they usually need, and that will put additional burden on the public services that are there to accommodate them."

Piddington resident Christina Gower, 26, said she was disappointed villagers had to do something "so drastic and desperate" to get the prime minister's attention, adding he would be welcome to join them for a cup of tea to discuss the issue.

She said: "You see this kind of stuff on the telly, in front of 10 Downing Street, not in plucky Piddington, in the middle of Oxfordshire.

"It doesn't make sense, but then I just think it's such a symbol for the rest of the UK, and I think the residents here in Piddington are so proud that they can pull off something so wacky and out of place and really impactful."

Ian Darby said he was "extremely emotional" listening to the result being read.

The 63-year-old said: "I haven't seen a press frenzy like that over a little village; it's quite extraordinary."

He added it has made the village think "wow, our voice can be heard".

Joe Marshall, a Piddington parish councillor, said the village could elect leaders for its new "principality" and even create ID cards.

Asked how far it could take its independence campaign, Marshall said it depends on how much the government was willing to listen.

He added its main aim was to encourage other communities unhappy with local decisions "to push for similar things".

He cited the Principality of Sealand as inspiration - a former military platform in the sea off East Anglia declared an independent territory in 1967.

Tim Beader, Oxfordshire County Council leader, said the campaigners had done an incredible job at highlighting their concerns about the proposed asylum centre.

"It's partially about the proposal itself, and partially about how the government has gone about this without engaging with the local community or looking at the feasibility of this site," he said.

"It's the wrong site for the local communities, for the asylum seekers themselves, and for the taxpayer."

The Home Office announced the plans in June as part of wider proposals to move migrants out of hotels.

Known as "Site A", MoD Bicester is located between the villages of Piddington and Upper and Lower Arncott.

In 2005 it was the target of similar plans for an asylum seekers accommodation centre, which were abandoned by the then-Labour government.

This year's announcement sparked widespread criticism, including from the district council and human rights groups, with many residents expressing shock.

Piddington falls within the constituency of Lib Dem MP for Bicester, Calum Miller. He previously said the plans had been "veiled in secrecy" and the process did not guarantee public participation "beyond a narrow list of statutory bodies".

However, earlier this month the government published an Urgent Crown Development application.

A public consultation on the plans is now running until midnight on 17 September.

Miller called the consultation a "clear win for local democracy and for every resident who refused to be shut out of a decision with profound consequences for our communities".

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