A rural Oxfordshire village has become the test of whether local consultation, border control and public protection still mean what government says they mean.

In the quiet, rural Oxfordshire village of Piddington, near Bicester, a fight is taking place that should concern us all.

The residents’ campaign, The Village That Roared [1] , opposes plans to accommodate up to 1,250 single adult male asylum seekers at the nearby former Bicester Garrison. Their struggle tests whether local consent still matters.

This Government promises devolution and greater local power. Yet local government reorganisation is being imposed through a process in which consultation appears to have had little influence. National housing and planning reforms are also removing decisions from elected local representatives.

Cherwell District Council was not consulted before the proposal was announced and learnt of it only hours before the public. The Government intends to use the Urgent Crown Development process, removing the final decision from the local planning authority. [2]

This is centralisation presented as local empowerment. Consultation means nothing when ministers have already determined the outcome and communities have no effective power to change it.

The centre could contain more than three times Piddington’s population. European evidence shows that scale, concentration and location affect surrounding communities.

Dutch research found that refugee reception centres reduced nearby house prices by an average of 5.8 per cent. Around centres accommodating more than 500 people in sparsely populated areas, the value of nearby family homes fell by about 9 per cent. Residents also reported greater nuisance, lower neighbourhood satisfaction and an increased desire to move. [3]

German findings on crime are mixed. Some research identified later increases in property and violent crime following large refugee inflows. It also found that dispersed accommodation produced lower crime rates than concentrated accommodation. [4]

This does not establish that every asylum seeker presents a danger. It establishes that concentrating large numbers of people in one location carries risks that must be assessed, managed and funded.

Large centres create public-order costs even when residents commit no offences. Demonstrations and counter-demonstrations require officers, intelligence gathering, security, road closures and overtime.

The Home Office provided £154,360 for policing connected with Wethersfield and £371,888 for the Bibby Stockholm during 2024/25. Funding associated with Scampton reached £1.8 million in the previous year. [5]

Criminal disorder remains the responsibility of those committing it. However, serious community tension is a foreseeable consequence of imposing a large and controversial facility without local consent.

Recent convictions involving asylum seekers, including people who entered Britain illegally, show why local concerns cannot be dismissed:

• Brighton: Three asylum seekers were convicted over the repeated rape of an incapacitated woman. Two received 21 years. The third received 18 years and six months for filming and encouraging the attack. [6]
• Falkirk: Muhammad Sheikhi sexually assaulted two women minutes apart while living at an asylum hotel. He received four years. [7]
• London: Small-boat migrant Yousif Al-Maliki raped a woman in a hostel. He received six years and six months. [8]
• Epping: Hadush Kebatu sexually assaulted a woman and a 14-year-old girl days after arriving by small boat. He received 12 months. [9]
• Nottingham: Abdul Khan entered Britain clandestinely, falsely claimed to be a child and later raped a 13-year-old girl he had groomed online. He received nine years and six months. [10]
• Walsall: Deng Chol Majek murdered hotel employee Rhiannon Whyte by stabbing her 23 times. He received life imprisonment with a minimum term of 29 years. [11]

These cases do not establish that every illegal entrant will offend. They show real risks and permanent consequences. These crimes would not have occurred here had the offenders been prevented from entering or removed.

The Government cannot quantify the problem because immigration status is not recorded consistently throughout the criminal justice system. The Office for National Statistics confirmed in January 2026 that it holds no aggregated crime statistics linking offending to immigration or asylum status. [12]

Ministers cannot dismiss a risk they have failed to measure.

On 30 June 2026, 10,134 foreign nationals occupied prisons in England and Wales, representing 12 per cent of the prison population. Of those, 6,431 were sentenced offenders. The remainder included prisoners on remand and people held for non-criminal reasons. [13]

Why release British offenders early while thousands of sentenced foreign criminals continue to occupy British prison places?

Every eligible foreign offender should be deported at the earliest opportunity. Where that is not immediately possible, compulsory prisoner-transfer agreements should allow offenders to serve their sentences in their own countries.

Immigration enforcement, prison capacity and deportation are one system. Failing to connect them places foreign offenders’ claims above public safety and victims’ rights.

Both the present Labour Government and the previous Conservative Government failed to secure our borders. There is, however, an important distinction between them.

The Conservative Government attempted to remove illegal entrants to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be determined outside Britain. The first flight was halted following an interim intervention by a judge of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. [14]

The policy faced sustained opposition from Labour, the Liberal Democrats, the SNP and the Greens. After the UK Supreme Court ruled the original arrangements unlawful, the Government negotiated a new treaty and passed the Safety of Rwanda Act. [15]

The scheme was expensive, delayed and never delivered. The Conservatives must accept that failure. But they recognised that illegal entry should not secure residence and an asylum decision inside Britain. Labour abolished the scheme on taking office.

Those entering Britain illegally should be removed without delay. Any asylum claim should be determined offshore, with no right to remain while it is considered.

Australia combined interception, turnbacks, offshore processing and denial of settlement to illegal maritime arrivals. More than 50,000 people reached Australia illegally by boat between 2008 and September 2013. Following Operation Sovereign Borders, successful illegal boat arrivals were virtually eliminated for years. [16]

Britain does not lack evidence. It lacks political will.

Piddington has responded by threatening a symbolic declaration of independence from the United Kingdom. Most of us do not want to leave the United Kingdom. We want shot of this hopeless Labour Government and Andy Burnham is not the answer. He is part of the problem. He offers more central control, greater spending and less local consent, as though returning to the 1970s represents Britain’s future.

Piddington Parish Council Chairman Tim McNally declared: “I am Spartacus. You are Spartacus. We are Spartacus.”

His village may be small, but its argument is national.

Today, we are all Piddington.

 

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References:

1. The Village That Roared . Piddington residents’ campaign. https://thevillagethatroared.org/

2. Site A: Bicester Garrison Home Office proposals . Cherwell District Council. https://www.cherwell.gov.uk/info/118/communities/1404/site-a—bicester-garrison-home-office-proposals

3. The local effects of refugee immigration on housing markets . Journal of Economic Geography. https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article/23/1/51/6574401

4. Do refugees impact crime? Causal evidence from large-scale refugee immigration to Germany . ZEW. https://www.zew.de/en/publications/do-refugees-impact-crime-causal-evidence-from-large-scale-refugee-immigration-to-germany-11

5. Large sites for asylum accommodation: support for police forces . Home Office. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/large-sites-for-asylum-accommodation-support-for-police-forces/large-sites-for-asylum-accommodation-support-for-police-forces

6. Asylum seekers given lengthy prison sentences for rape of woman on Brighton beach . Sky News. https://news.sky.com/story/asylum-seekers-given-lengthy-prison-sentences-for-rape-of-woman-on-brighton-beach-13563576

7. Refugee jailed for sex attacks on two women in Falkirk . Sky News. https://news.sky.com/story/refugee-sentenced-for-sex-attacks-on-two-women-in-falkirk-13558763

8. Small-boat migrant convicted of raping a woman in a London hostel . The Sun. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/39257804/boat-migrant-claimed-persecuted-bisexual-convicted-raping-woman-hostel/

9. Asylum seeker sentenced after sexual assaults in Epping . Associated Press. https://apnews.com/article/uk-asylum-seeker-sentenced-kebatu-epping-2e7ad640c15b74fcb65c159b4fc110ee

10. Asylum seeker jailed after posing as teenage boy to groom and rape 13-year-old girl . Sky News. https://news.sky.com/story/asylum-seeker-jailed-after-posing-as-teenage-boy-to-groom-and-rape-13-year-old-girl-13571676

11. Sudanese man jailed in UK for murdering asylum hotel worker . Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/sudanese-man-jailed-uk-murdering-asylum-hotel-worker-2026-01-30/

12. Crime by nationality and immigration status, 2025 . Office for National Statistics. https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/crimebynationalityandimmigrationstatus2025

13. Offender management statistics quarterly: January to March 2026 . Ministry of Justice. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2026/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2026

14. Interim measure concerning imminent removal from the UK to Rwanda . European Court of Human Rights. https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf/?filename=Interim&id=003-7359967-10054452&library=ECHR

15. Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill . UK Parliament, Joint Committee on Human Rights. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt5804/jtselect/jtrights/435/report.html

16. Operation Sovereign Borders . Australian Government, Department of Home Affairs. https://osb.homeaffairs.gov.au/