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Residents of an English village have voted to leave the UK in a symbolic referendum against plans to house more than 1,000 asylum seekers nearby.
The result of the poll in Piddington, Oxfordshire, was announced on Wednesday morning after 312 people voted on Tuesday. A total of 285 people were in favour of independence from the UK while 26 voted against. One ballot was spoiled.
The poll was organised by campaigners for residents to demonstrate opposition to government plans to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers at a converted Ministry of Defence site in the town of Bicester.
Reacting to the news, a government minister said she would “gently” tell residents of the village that the government was working to bring down the asylum backlog, and that a burden had to be shared across communities.
Lisa Nandy, the culture and media minister, told Sky News: “We are getting that backlog down. We’re speeding up the processing of claims, and in the meantime, we don’t think it’s acceptable for all of the burden of shouldering not just asylum accommodation, but also many other forms of temporary accommodation, to fall on poorer communities.”
She added: “That’s what we saw under the previous government. Because accommodation is cheap in many, not just towns, but in particular postcode areas. People who live in more deprived communities have had to put up with almost … every other house in some instances … turned into HMOs [house in multiple occupation], and that is not OK.”
The dispute over the plans in Bicester come against a backdrop of tensions elsewhere over the location of accommodation for asylum seekers. After disturbances in Thetford, Norfolk, earlier this year, which far-right activists attempted to exploit, the local Labour MP there voiced his concerns that cheaper, working-class areas were being chosen as locations for housing asylum seekers in HMOs.
Tim Bearder, the leader of Oxfordshire county council, said on Wednesday that the result in Piddington showed that campaigners had done “an incredible job” to highlight their concerns.
“This referendum shows how strongly they feel about the proposal and that is partly about the proposal itself and partly about way the government has gone about it, without engaging with local people and looking at the feasibility of the site,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“It’s the wrong site for the local community and for the asylum seekers themselves,” said Bearder, who declined to say what alternative sites could be used.
The result was announced on Wednesday morning by a “returning officer” in front of an audience of dozens of journalists and residents gathered outside the village hall.
A parish councillor, Mike Nixon, said the proposed site had no pedestrian access areas, and that the nearest path was about a mile and a quarter away, down a busy unlit road.
The Home Office has previously said that the government is closing asylum hotels in what is expected to saving taxpayers over £1bn on asylum support and that it is working fairly to house asylum seekers across the country.
“As part of the process, we engage with local authorities and police forces to ensure the safety and security of those in the surrounding area,” a spokesperson said.
