The Oxfordshire Village so Alarmed by Asylum Plans it’s Planning a Referendum on Whether to Leave the UK

Residents of Piddington, a tiny Oxfordshire village of around 350 people, have held a protest picnic and voted 96% in favour of a symbolic referendum to secede from the UK in opposition to Government plans to house 1,250 single adult male asylum seekers at a nearby former MoD depot. Women in the village say they are frightened to walk alone at night, with one 73-year-old resident saying: “I’m scared really – it breaks my heart.” The Times has the story:

lsewhere, protests against asylum ­seeker centres have featured chanting crowds, England flags and occasional clashes with police but in the Oxfordshire village of Piddington residents have hosted a picnic and voted for a symbolic referendum to ­secede from the UK.

Among other fundraising ideas, some locals have proposed a dog show, a motorbike or classic car ride-out, as well as a sponsored walk around the ­circumference of the proposed site.

The picturesque village, mentioned in the Domesday Book, has a population of about 350. It has no shops, cafés or pub but does have a church and village hall with a pop-up-pub once a month, coffee mornings and short-mat bowls. Residents leave back doors open and send children on errands around the village.

However, the government is considering using a nearby disused Ministry of Defence storage depot, MoD ­Bicester, to house 1,250 single adult male ­asylum seekers. Site A of the former Bicester Garrison is down the road from the ­village and close to Piddington’s playing field, the Jubilee Reserve.

Residents have voiced concerns that asylum seekers – venturing into the village out of boredom – could cause trouble. Some suggested that they would gather and potentially drink at the playing field. Many women said that they would not feel safe to walk alone at night.

Derek Joy, 86, a retired master ­saddler, has lived in the village for 52 years and with his wife, Karen, 73, for the past 12. Karen said: “I’ve said to him I think we need to get a better gate. He won’t let me get a dog but I’m thinking I will. I’m not a young lady any more, I’m scared really. It breaks my heart. We live here because we want this peace, this safety, this community.”

Her husband said: “I understand that when you get 1,250 men, boys – wherever they’re from – they’re going to cause trouble. I’m worried they will take advantage of women… and people’s properties. I’m 86, if a bloke comes in now, I can’t do anything about it.”

Melise Witkin, 59, who runs a horse rug business, has lived alone in her ­cattle barn conversion for six years, with her four horses and three dogs.

She said that she would feel “vulnerable” walking around alone, with headlines about asylum seekers committing sexual offences in Essex and Brighton “in the back of her head”.

“I would be scared,” she said. “We don’t know who these people are… Whether they’re criminals or whether they’re really lovely guys, we don’t know. That leaves an uncertainty. I think as a woman, a large group of men against one woman is frightening.”

Alice and Ed West, both 42, came up with the idea of a Hollywood-style ­“Piddington” sign in the Jubilee Reserve, which children decorated with colourful handprints at the protest picnic. “We wanted to show the proximity of the sign to Site A,” Ed, who works in property maintenance, said, adding that they took their three daughters, aged 11, 9 and 7, to the reserve every day. His wife, who has a textile business, said she might hesitate to go to the reserve on her own if the site were approved. “Because you don’t know on any given day who’s going to be there,” she said.
Last month 96% of residents voted in favour of having a symbolic referendum to secede from the UK.

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