Rayner approves asylum centre at former MoD Bicester site
The communities secretary granted full planning permission near Piddington, but the Home Office says a final decision to proceed is still pending.
Angela Rayner, the UK communities secretary, has granted full planning permission for an asylum centre at a former Ministry of Defence site near the village of Piddington in Oxfordshire, clearing the refurbishment of former barracks to accommodate up to 1,256 detained asylum seekers.
The Home Office said the decision to use the site had not been taken. "Planning permission allows us to continue to progress the use of MoD Bicester. However, a final decision to proceed is yet to be taken," a Home Office spokesperson said, according to the Guardian. The department said it was closing asylum hotels and moving people into former military sites built to be self-contained, with round-the-clock security and CCTV, and that it had saved more than £1bn in costs since the election.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the permission covered the "temporary, phased use" of the site and declined to comment further because the decision may be challenged in court. The approval opens a six-week window in which it can face a legal challenge.
Opposition in Piddington has been organised for months. In September, residents held a symbolic referendum on independence from the UK in protest at the plans. Two hundred and eighty-five people voted in favour and 26 against, the Guardian reported. The campaign group Wrong Plan Wrong Site has sought a judicial review of the Home Office proposals, saying there were "credible concerns about potential significant environmental effects" after the government concluded in August that an environmental assessment was unnecessary.
Katie Lam, the shadow housing secretary, said Rayner had told the people of Piddington that "their voices count for nothing". Lam said a village of a few hundred people would have 1,256 "illegal male migrants housed on its doorstep against the wishes of almost everyone who lives there", and argued that people should be removed on arrival rather than moved from hotels to military bases.
The Home Office said in June it was exploring the use of three former military sites: MoD Bicester, MoD Barnham and MoD Linton-on-Ouse. It is also seeking to extend the use of two existing sites, Crowborough until 2030 and Wethersfield beyond 2027.
ITVX reported reaction from residents in Piddington to the approval.
How the reports differ
The Times said Rayner had used emergency powers to push the centre through, a description the other reports did not use; the Guardian described the same decision as full planning permission granted despite local opposition, and stressed the Home Office line that a final decision is pending. The Telegraph called the site a "migrant camp" in its headline, while the Guardian and the Independent called it an asylum centre. The Independent led on the prospect of legal action and a mounting backlash rather than on the approval itself. ITVX led with residents' reaction in Piddington, and only the Guardian carried the detail of the September symbolic referendum, the 1,256 figure and the six-week challenge window.
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