News Story

Female residents of an Oxfordshire village set to house more than 1,000 asylum seekers have told politicians they would fear for their safety if plans went ahead.

The Government’s proposal to move 1,256 male asylum seekers into an ex-military base near Piddington has sparked anger and fear among many village residents.

On Tuesday, Piddington Parish Council will hold a symbolic “referendum”, inviting parishioners to vote on whether their village should become independent from the UK.

Ahead of the vote, around 20 women gathered at the village green on Monday to meet shadow home secretary Chris Philp, shadow minister for women and equalities Joy Morrissey, and Reform UK MPs Sarah Pochin and Suella Braverman.

Ms Pochin and Ms Braverman were two MPs to respond to an open letter penned by a group of Piddington’s female residents, addressed to all women MPs.

In the letter, the group of 133 women said they face a “crisis”, adding “our safety, security and freedoms will be under threat”.

Heidi Meakin, 61, a recently widowed Piddington resident, was one of the women behind the letter, and joined the group at the village green on Monday.

Ms Meakin told the Press Association she moved to the village because it is quiet, but would no longer feel safe there if the site went ahead.

She said: “I wouldn’t leave my front door unlocked like I do. I would be reluctant to come down here and walk my dog.

“This is where all of us come and walk our dogs, meet people, and the kids come down here and play football, and that will change, that will completely change.

“Change the dynamics of the village, change the dynamics of how we feel, and even our daily routine.”

Ms Meakin, who works in construction, said she feels the plans, which were not initially subject to public consultation, have been “completely railroaded on all of us”.

“We pay our taxes, we live here. Don’t we have a right to have our voice heard?” she said.

Gloria Brown, 69, who has lived in Piddington for 23 years, said she would stop litter-picking in the village if plans went ahead, something she takes “lots of pride” in doing.

“All my friends in the village call me Madame Cholet,” Ms Brown said. “I wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. I do it on my own sometimes.”

She added: “How ever am I going to get my mental health back to scale? Because it’s going to make me feel imprisoned in my own village.

“I’ve felt very emotional about it just lately, and it’s just not correct, and it’s totally unfair.”

Piddington resident Cheryl Coggins, 76, told PA she feels “worried” about the number of men who would be housed at the centre, adding she would feel less concerned if the plan was to move families in.

Ms Coggins said: “I think my main thoughts are the amount of people that they’re wanting to put in there, because we are a very small village, and I’m obviously worried that it’s all men.

“Purely because I’m older, there’s a lot of young girls in the village, and you hear all the time what’s going on, so I’m obviously very concerned about that, and I just don’t think it’s the right place for them. They must look elsewhere.”

She added: “I think because it’s so many men, if it was mixed or there were families, it would be easier, you could tolerate it more.”

Ms Pochin told PA she believes the safety of women and girls in Piddington is at risk.

She said: “It’s a quiet, sleepy rural village. But of course, if you have 1,200 young men now dumped in the village, wandering around at night, they feel threatened.”

Asked whether she is concerned about protesters, such as those who staged recent anti-migrant demonstrations in Dover and Portsmouth, Ms Pochin suggested “they wouldn’t be unwelcome” in the village.

She said: “What we saw in Portsmouth on Saturday was a peaceful demonstration.

“There was no trouble in Portsmouth on Saturday in this country, we are a democracy, and we have to defend our right to peacefully protest.

“I’m quite sure, talking to the residents here this morning, that if peaceful demonstrations happened here because of the outrage people are feeling, then it wouldn’t be unwelcome, because it raises the issue and keeps it very much in the front of the news.”