EXCLUSIVE: Youngsters from an Oxfordshire village are writing to the PM appealing for him to save their future from an asylum centre for 1,250 male migrants.
Ned, aged 5, (left) and Rex, aged 7, with their letters to the PM and their mum Gina (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Heartbreaking letters written by children in a village threatened by a migrant MoD base plan have appealed directly to the prime minister to save their future. Andy Burnham, himself a father of three, would be made of stone if he wasn’t moved by these innocent pleas from the youngest affected by Britain’s out-of-control asylum crisis.
Piddington, a village in Oxfordshire home to around 250 adults and 46 children, is now in the firing line for plans to house 1,250 male migrants at a neighbouring former Ministry of Defence (MoD) site. Locals recently held a symbolic independence vote to leave the UK over the proposals which they complain have been forced upon them with no consultation.
Mostly fighting age migrant men could arrive in a matter of months and will be free to roam subject only to signing in and out. A flimsy fence around the site runs directly at the back of several village homes and along the line of the parish council playing field and park used by playing children, families and dog walkers.
Safety fears have been raised over asylum seekers congregating in the area and in the village as they have done around similar sites elsewhere in the country.
Now in a series of letters the youngsters of Piddington are writing to Number 10 urging the prime minister, who has just jetted off on a summer holiday, to heed their voices where their parents have been ignored.
In one letter seven-year-old Rex worries roaming migrants will mean he may not be able to visit the grave of his sister who is laid to rest in the village.
In another note Orla West, aged nine, writes about the asylum plan that she does “not like this idea” because “we love our park”.
Constance Walker, aged six, tells the PM that Piddington “is the best” and that she loves walking dogs at the park. Older sister Athena Walker, aged nine, says she is writing the letter “so we can carry on having fun”.
Noting the impact of the site on her life, 11-year-old Tilly West points out she won’t be able to use the park anymore. “I will not have as much freedom when I’m older,” she writes, adding her letter is for the people in the village “as well dogs who won’t be able to go sniffing in the bushes as much”.
Tilly’s little sister Edith, aged seven, writes that she loves the park and there is “so much love and friendship” in Piddington.
(Left to right) Orla, Constance, Tilly, Edith and Athena have all written letters to the PM (Image: Supplied)
Interior architect Gina Perkin, 37, has lived in the village all her life and can trace roots back here for at least five generations. She and her husband Jamie have raised a family in this idyllic part of Oxfordshire, with their sons Rex, aged seven, Ned, aged five, and nine-month-old Zac.
Their beloved daughter Nancy sadly passed away aged 41 weeks in 2017. Her grave is in the village churchyard.
The letter from Gina’s eldest son Rex is perhaps the most moving as he tells the prime minister he fears the government plans will stop him being able to walk to visit the grave of his sister.
Heartbreakingly in his message to the PM, Rex writes “I worry I won’t be able to do that anymore”.
Gina said: “The letter from Rex, my eldest, is very focused on visiting his sister.
“My mum says ‘out of the mouths of babes’ and that’s what his letter is, it’s pure and innocent and he wanted Andy Burnham to see what is important to him.
“Nancy is part of our family, and my children ask if they can go and see her every other day. It’s terrifying how these plans could change everything.
“We don’t want our children to be scared about the future, but we have explained that it is a lot of people that the Government want to move very close to the village and it might change the way we live our lives.”
A letter from Rex, aged seven, who worries the asylum plans will stop him seeing his sister (Image: Supplied)
Gina’s son Ned, aged five, notes how much he loves his village because it is “such a kind place” and that he loves playing football at the reserve.
“I want to appeal to Andy Burnham, as a mother to a father, to say ‘how would you protect your children if this was happening near you?” she said.
“We have tried to reach out to the government and we have not been heard as adults, but now it’s time to listen to the children, they need to be heard.
“This ultimately is their future and their security, and they have a right to feel safe and protected and this right is being compromised by these plans.
“I want to say to Andy Burnhan as a father and not a prime minister, can you listen to our children?”
The strength of the community spirit in Piddington is what makes this village, like so many rural communities up and down Britain, a special place to raise a family, but Gina fears that “tight knit” way of life is now at risk.
The MoD base sits just behind the children’s playing fields (pictured) (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
She added: “They say it takes a village to raise a child, and this proposal is putting that in jeopardy.
“I know if I had to take one of my children to the doctors I could knock on my neighbour’s door and they would look after my other child.
“I see my mum every day and she was helping at our house the other night because my brother and his partner are getting married. Mum left the house at 11pm to walk home, but will she be able to do that in future without being at risk?
“Even if they put 1,250 Scottish men, or white British men, at the MoD site, there is a danger.”
Gina’s mum Mandy Bayliss, 62, said as children she and her friends would go out and play from eight in the morning and not come back until teatime.
“It scares me that my grandchildren will no longer be able to have the childhood that I had and previous generations have had,” she said, “It’s always been a safe village, and everyone looks out for one another, we are a community and it is a unique place.
“We are very lucky as a family that we have been able to stay here because not everyone can do that, and I feel our children’s heritage left by so many generations is going to be eroded by these plans.
“There are other families in Piddington with as many generations going back as we have and that legacy is under threat.
“We are hoping when Andy reads some of these letters it will prick his conscience.”
A letter from Tilly West, aged 11 (Image: Supplied)
Finance sector worker Matt Walker, 49, has lived in the village for 13 years with his wife Kirsty and their two daughters Athena, aged nine and six-year-old Constance.
“We moved here because we wanted to settle down and raise a family and on the first night here, I proposed to Kirsty,” Matt said.
“It’s not just a house, it’s a home, Piddington is the perfect place to raise a family, or it was the perfect place until these proposals.
“My daughters are getting to that age where they are going to want to cycle to the park and see friends. That’s going to be robbed from them because with this site going to be next-door, that’s no longer going to be possible.
“Like any parent, you don’t gamble with the safety of your children.”
Matt said he and his wife had to find a balance between letting the girls know what is happening, while at the same time not giving them “nightmares”.
“Should this proposal go ahead, and it becomes a real threat rather than a potential threat, then obviously the conversation with them will have to change and that’s going to be very difficult,” he added.
A letter from Edith West, aged 7 (Image: Supplied)
The national backlog of asylum applications stands at a staggering 98,000, with more migrants crossing the Channel every week.
Those numbers could be sent soaring after terrifying scenes emerged from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta at the weekend when nearly 50,000 migrants stormed the EU border.
In tackling the crisis Labour has vowed to put a stop to the disastrous Home Office scheme of housing migrants in hotels.
But Whitehall risks shifting the problem sideways with highly controversial plans to flood mostly rural former Ministry of Defence sites with thousands of single male migrants. As well as the proposal for Piddington, two more MoD sites in Barnham in Suffolk, and Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire, could house about 3,750 asylum seekers if planning permission is granted.
The government is also looking to extend the use of existing military sites in Crowborough, East Sussex until 2030 and Wethersfield, Essex beyond 2027.
Number 10 said it would “consider the issues raised” and “investigate” the concerns set out in any letters sent by the children of Piddington.
A spokesman said: “The concerns of communities are central to our immigration reforms which is why we are working with local authorities and others to make the system fairer by housing asylum seekers in basic accommodation, including ex-military sites. Five military sites are either in use or being explored.
“We have already seen results. The population of asylum seekers in hotels has fallen by 35% in the last year and by 63% from the peak of 56,000 in 2023. Overall asylum costs have already fallen by nearly £1 billion since the general election.”
Piddington could soon have more than 1,250 male migrants living nextdoor (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
LETTERS FROM THE CHILDREN OF PIDDINGTON
Edith West (age 7)
Dear PM,I love my village and my park.
I love the flexibility obstacles they are cool.
There’s so much love and friendship here.
Tree. Haybale. Flower
Orla West (age 9)
Dear Andy Burnham
I do not like this idea because we love our park
We can walk our dogs
We love Piddington
Tilly West (age 11)
Dear Andy Burnham,
This is our park! We love it, we use it, and we play in it.
The reason we are doing so much is to protect our village and park. My family loves the park, we go there every day to walk our dog, if we can’t come here anymore, I will not have as much freedom when I’m older!
If we can come here, I will be able to walk the dog, go on bike rides and other really cool things by myself!
Please, please, please! This is for the 300-400 people in the village as well as dogs who won’t be able to go sniffing in the bushes as much.
Athena Walker (age 9)
Dear Andy Burnham
I love Piddington. This is our park. We use this park to pay and walk dogs and have fun.
We are doing this so then we can carry on having fun.
This is our park and we enjoy it!
Piddington is amazing for our communities and our land and park.
The whole of Piddington is united.
Constance Walker (age 6)
Dear Andy Burnham,
I love Piddington! because the park is so fun and I love watching people walk their dog. Piddington is the best.
Rex Perkin (age 7)
Dear Andy
We like our village because I and my family walk down to my sister’s grave to see her. I worry I won’t be able to do that anymore
My family has lived here for our 100 years.
I love the playing field in Piddington because I (go) there every week.
Thanks Andy
Ned Perkin (age 5)
Dear PM,
I love living in Piddington because it is such a kind place. I love playing football at the park.