The Home Office has said the assessment at an ex-MoD site was based on ‘on outdated estimations’ but the documents have sparked fresh fears for residents.
Migrants crossing the English Channel (Image: PA)
Shocked villagers have uncovered the Government asked for assessments to place more than 3,500 male migrants at a former MoD base which would have left residents outnumbered 10 to one. The ex-MoD Bicester Site A storage depot has been earmarked by the Home Office to house at least 1,256 male asylum seekers.
The staggering numbers already dwarf the population of the neighbouring village of Piddington, Oxfordshire, which is home to just 350 people. But now a tranche of newly-released government planning documents includes an Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) risk assessment, which states “the proposed scheme” relates to “accommodation for 3,510 service users” – almost triple the official figure.
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The Home Office said the plans – which are still publicly accessible and have not been withdrawn or corrected – were “based on outdated estimations” and that it was “categorically untrue” to suggest MoD Bicester would house more asylum seekers. The Government Property Agency said the report was carried out by a third-party. The name of the organisation has been redacted.
But Local resident and parish councillor Joe Marshall, who has been poring over the papers released as part of the planning ‘consultation’, said: “They appointed someone to look at the location for 3,510 migrants, they might say they have cancelled the 3,510, but that number is still on the assessment.
“It’s misleading, if they are saying this is categorically no longer the case, then withdraw the document, and update it.”
Aerial view of the Bicester MoD site where 1,250 migrants could be housed (Image: Supplied)
Piddington has been dubbed “ground zero” in the migrant crisis as Labour ploughs ahead punishing populations in rural towns and villages by moving thousands of mostly fighting age male migrants into ex-military sites in counties including Essex, Yorkshire, Oxfordshire, Suffolk and East Sussex.
Piddington residents are now on the front line in the migrant crisis battle, and on July 4 villagers voted 96% in favour of a referendum to leave the UK if the migrant camp plans go ahead.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham mentioned Piddington in the Commons last week and later told GB News that “we understand people’s concerns and I will look into the issues raised by the good people of Piddington”.
However, the PM added the whole country had to “to play their part” accommodating migrants, a reference to the Labour strategy targeting rural areas to house migrants outside of their own voter heartlands.
An Urgent Crown Development consultation for the site, which started yesterday (Monday) and runs for ten days, is not bound by any public objections.
Mr Marshall, who is a principal building surveyor at a construction and planning consultancy, added: “The Prime Minister told our community directly that he would look at our concerns, then said that affluent areas need to do their part,” he said.
“You are talking about placing a population close to regiment strength, arriving at once, on a site with no history of housing a civilian population at all, with no services on site to suit, next to villages with none of the infrastructure to absorb it either.
“That isn’t a number, it’s a different kind of place being dropped into ours.
“What’s happened since is that the application was kept from public view for 56 days, and when it finally emerged, eleven sections had been redacted, including the parts covering suicide and self-harm prevention and how deaths on site would be handled.
“If this is what ‘looking at it’ means, the village has every right to ask what looking at it would actually take.
“The application runs to hundreds of pages assessing unexploded ordnance, drainage and heritage buildings, yet there is no economic impact assessment, no health impact assessment, suitable flood risk (beyond our identification that the site floods and clay soil means poor infiltration) or competent highways, transport and travel assessments and no statement of community involvement.”
Gina Perkin with her sons Ned, aged 5, and Rex, aged 7. (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Reacting to the previous potential hike in numbers, villager and mum-of-three Gina Perkin, 37, said the Home Office had already told “outright lies” about consulting local authorities over the plans, so she would not be surprised if there were more lies about the number of migrants coming to the base.
“We have had zero correspondence or consideration from them, it feels like we are just collateral damage in this whole diabolical scheme,” she said.
“The original number was already terrifying, but this new figure goes beyond that, I can’t even let myself imagine how that kind of scale would change our lives.
“After being acknowledged as ‘the good people of Piddington’ by Andy Burnham live on TV – at this point it is now clear we are being ignored, we don’t matter.
“I’m not sure what this means for our village and our children’s future, but it would most definitely change for the worse which is heartbreaking to think about.
“It is really taking a toll on us already, maybe Andy would like to explain to the children why they don’t matter.”
Samantha Phillips, 61, who has lived in Piddington for 26 years, is now organising self-defence classes for women and children in response to multiple cases in the courts of asylum seeking physically and sexually assaulting the public.
Andy Burnham is coming under increasing pressure over Labour plans to house migrants in MoD bases (Image: PA)
She told the Daily Express: “To put this into perspective. If this was to happen, if we were to get 3,510 male migrants, then the entire population of Piddington represents less than one tenth of the size of the local male migrants.
“This isn’t just about being outnumbered this will destroy our little village, completely obliterate it. Where is the consideration about our human rights, for women and children’s rights?”
Samantha added that the planning proposal was “littered with errors” leading to worries the Government could be hiding even more from local residents who face having a migrant camp on their doorstep.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “It is categorically untrue to suggest we are seeking to house 3,510 people at MOD Bicester.
“As our planning application clearly states, we are considering the site to accommodate up to 1,256 asylum seekers.
“The concerns of communities are central to our immigration reforms. That is why we are closing every asylum hotel and moving asylum seekers into alternative accommodation, including former military sites.”