Residents of the Oxfordshire village of Piddington have voted overwhelmingly to symbolically “leave the United Kingdom” in an extraordinary protest against Government plans to house up to 1,256 male asylum seekers at a nearby former Ministry of Defence site.
The result of the unofficial referendum was announced on Wednesday morning after 312 votes were cast. A total of 285 backed independence, 26 voted against and one ballot was spoiled.
The vote has no legal or constitutional effect. It was organised as a peaceful protest designed to draw attention to local opposition to the proposed asylum accommodation at MoD Bicester.
285 residents vote for independence
Residents were asked whether they supported Piddington seeking to secede from the United Kingdom and pursuing self-determination.
Of the 312 ballots cast, more than nine in ten supported the proposal.
The village had a population of 358 at the 2021 Census, making the turnout particularly striking.
Parish council chair Tim McNally described the result as an example of democracy in action and said the campaign would continue following the referendum.
Why is Piddington protesting?
The dispute centres on Government proposals to use a former Ministry of Defence site at Bicester to accommodate up to 1,256 male asylum seekers.
Piddington Parish Council says residents were not properly consulted before the proposal was announced and has called for greater transparency over why the site was selected.
The council is also seeking independent assessments of the potential impact on healthcare, policing, transport and other local services, as well as a review of alternative locations.
Those concerns are the position of the parish council and local campaigners rather than established findings about the eventual impact of the proposed centre.
Government says asylum accommodation must be shared
The Government has defended its wider strategy of moving asylum seekers out of hotels and into alternative accommodation.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy responded to the Piddington result by saying ministers were working to reduce the asylum backlog and that the burden of temporary accommodation should not fall disproportionately on poorer communities.
The Home Office has said it is working to house asylum seekers fairly across the country while closing asylum hotels, and that it engages with local authorities and police forces over safety and security.
Downing Street had said before the result that no final decision had been made on the use of the MoD Bicester site.
Former military site at centre of row
Ministers have argued that former military sites can offer an alternative to the continued use of asylum hotels.
Senior minister Jonathan Reynolds said ahead of the vote that there was no location likely to welcome additional asylum accommodation, but argued that a former military site was more suitable than using hotels in town and city centres.
Local campaigners dispute the suitability of the Bicester site.
Parish councillor Mike Nixon has raised concerns about pedestrian access, saying the nearest path is around a mile and a quarter away along a busy unlit road.
Documents associated with the proposal describe pedestrian access as limited and say travel on foot is not recommended, with cycling and public transport options potentially provided.
A symbolic vote with no legal route to independence
Despite the scale of the result, Piddington has not actually left the United Kingdom.
There is no legal mechanism through which an English parish can unilaterally secede from the UK following a local vote of this kind.
The referendum was instead designed to provide a highly visible expression of opposition to the Government's asylum accommodation proposal.
The campaign has adopted the tongue-in-cheek language of the “Principality of Piddington”, with signs appearing around the village.
Parish council says campaign is about consultation
Piddington Parish Council has stressed that its campaign is not founded on hostility towards people seeking refuge.
On its official village website, the council says its central argument is that a development of this scale should involve meaningful consultation with the community affected.
It is calling for full transparency over the site-selection process, assessments of the impact on local services and consideration of alternatives.
The Government, meanwhile, is attempting to reduce reliance on asylum hotels and says accommodation needs to be distributed more fairly around the country.
National attention for tiny Oxfordshire village
The unusual referendum has propelled Piddington into the national political debate over asylum accommodation, local consultation and the Government's attempts to reform the asylum system.
The result does not change the village's constitutional status or determine whether the proposed Bicester centre will proceed.
But with 285 residents voting for symbolic independence and only 26 voting against, the parish council has succeeded in turning a local planning and asylum accommodation dispute into a national story.