Second village weighs up referendum over Home Office asylum plans after Piddington votes to leave UK
Residents of Barnham in Suffolk could hold a Piddington-style referendum over the Government's plan to house 1,256 asylum seekers in the area.
A second village is considering holding a Piddington-style independence referendum over a controversial proposal to house asylum seekers on an RAF base.
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The people of Piddington, Oxfordshire, last week voted to secede from the UK after the Government announced plans to house 1,256 male asylum seekers at a nearby former military base.
The symbolic poll drew widespread media attention and also caught the attention of some in Barnham, Suffolk, where RAF Barnham has been identified as a possible asylum accommodation site.
John Bauer, chairman of Barnham Parish Council, said a “small group” would travel to Piddington on Tuesday evening to meet campaigners there.
“It’s really a fact-finding mission I guess to find out a bit more about exactly what they’ve done, how effective it’s all been and whether that’s something we would want to do in Barnham,” he said.
Read more: How Piddington can feel more comfortable about asylum seekers
“My personal view… is I think it is worth doing.
“Piddington have certainly raised their profile immensely for a village which is even smaller than ours.”
He said that at the last census around 580 people were recorded as living in Barnham.
“Why is Barnham not suitable (for the proposed asylum accommodation)? Where do you want me to begin?” he said.
“1,250 single men being accommodated next to a village of less than 600 – the numbers themselves, I mean it’s so disproportionate.
“It’s not like they would be contained within the site, they’re not restricted.”
The Oxfordshire village of Piddington, which has a population of just 358, voted in favour of independence from the UK, in a protest against plans to house 1,256 male migrants at a nearby former military base.
Defending the asylum plans, Minister for Victims & Violence Against Women and Girls, Alex Davies-Jones, told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast "it is on all of us to take responsibility" to reduce the backlog in processing asylum claims.
"No decision has been made yet on Piddington, and we are consulting.
"We want to listen very, very closely to the concerns of everyone in that village and everyone in society as well as to the nature of this problem.