{"id":771649,"date":"2026-09-15T18:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771649\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T18:01:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T18:01:11","slug":"battle-of-britain-piddington-goes-to-the-polls-in-independence-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/771649\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Battle of Britain\u2019: Piddington goes to the polls in \u2018independence\u2019 vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A pensioner who lives in an Oxfordshire village which could house more than 1,000 asylum seekers has declared a symbolic independence referendum the \u201cBattle of Britain\u201d.<\/p>\n

Piddington residents are voting on whether to secede from the UK and become an independent state, after the Government<\/a> announced plans to house 1,256 male asylum seekers at a nearby former military base.<\/p>\n

Residents have been invited to cast their ballot in a small box outside the village hall, the community hub of Piddington, which does not have any pubs, cafes or shops.<\/p>\n

A pennant hanging outside the hall reads \u201cBattle for Britain 2026\u201d, and another commemorates the date of the Second World War military campaign the Battle of Britain, on September 15 1940.<\/p>\n

A rural Oxfordshire village will hold a symbolic independence \u201creferendum\u201d on Tuesday to protest against controversial Government plans to house more than 1,000 asylum seekers at a nearby former military base.<\/p>\n

Herbert Owen, known in the village as Herbie, said the independence referendum \u201cisn\u2019t just about Piddington\u201d.<\/p>\n

After casting his vote, Mr Owen told the Press Association: \u201cIt means everything our grandparents, our parents fought for \u2013 today is the Battle of Britain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just about Piddington, this is about our whole country. This Government is destabilising our country.<\/p>\n

\u201cWherever they put these people, in camps, in HMOs, or whatever, they\u2019re ruining people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Owen, 76, described Piddington, which has a population of about 350, as a \u201cwonderful little village\u201d, which has not seen much change since he moved there 33 years ago.<\/p>\n

Piddington has been flooded with members of the media covering the vote, and dozens of journalists filled the village hall in the otherwise quiet village.<\/p>\n

\"MoreMore than 1,000 male asylum seekers could be housed at the former military base (Joe Giddens\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Mr Owen said: \u201cWe need the media to support us. We\u2019ve got more publications and more TV than any marches, riots.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if the Government doesn\u2019t do something, I\u2019m afraid for the country. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. I feel for the country, for the people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Owen\u2019s wife, Jennifer, told PA she felt villagers\u2019 concerns have been ignored by the Government, which did not initially put proposals forward for public consultation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re nobody. The village is nobody, according to the Government,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The perimeter of the proposed site backs on to the tree line of a village green in Piddington, which is owned by the parish council and has children\u2019s play equipment and a fitness trail.<\/p>\n

\"PiddingtonPiddington residents cast their votes at the village hall (Ben Whitley\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n

Mrs Owen said she felt the site was unsuitable and had concerns about the safety of children and dog walkers who use the area.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI\u2019m an old-age pensioner, but I fear for the women and the children in the village.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey won\u2019t be safe to go out in the village, not on their own, they\u2019ll have to have their husbands with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will wreck children\u2019s lifestyle, their livelihoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mrs Owen said most people in Piddington know one another and talk when they are out and about, or while they visit the occasional pop-up bar in the village hall.<\/p>\n

She said the site would \u201cchange our lives forever\u201d if it were to go ahead.<\/p>\n

Asked how it felt to cast her ballot in the symbolic vote, Mrs Owen said: \u201cBit of sense of power.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t actually leave the United Kingdom<\/a>, but it just brings things out in the open more for the country as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the parish councils in the country should do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parish councillor Mike Nixon said the proposed site has no pedestrian access areas and the Government has suggested issuing asylum seekers with high-visibility jackets to keep them safe while walking along a busy road.<\/p>\n

He told PA: \u201cThe nearest path is about a mile and a quarter away, down a very busy road that\u2019s unlit.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir\u00a0(the Government\u2019s) own document says\u00a0it\u2019s not recommended that pedestrian access is used, so they\u2019re proposing that residents would use the shuttle bus service from the site.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd to further discourage them, they\u2019re suggesting that should they walk, they would be issued high-vis jackets, and that\u2019s the only mitigation for the residents\u2019 safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe road itself, the B4011, is a busy road, 50-mile-an-hour speed limit, but vehicles will regularly go in excess of that, so it is likely that there would be significant risk of road traffic collisions, injury, or even death, should the plan go ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Nixon said the proposed site was prone to surface water flooding, has an inadequate foul water drainage system, and an insufficient power supply.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThe site itself is wholly inadequate in terms of its infrastructure \u2013 so insufficient power, not enough water, no sewerage, prone to flooding.<\/p>\n

\u201cApart from that, it sounds pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the travel plan submitted as part of the Government\u2019s proposals, the site is described as having \u201climited\u201d pedestrian access and travel on foot was \u201cnot recommended\u201d.<\/p>\n

Cycling and public transport options may be provided, the document added.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Home Office said: \u201cThe Government is closing every asylum hotel, saving taxpayers over \u00a31 billion on asylum support since the election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working to fairly house asylum seekers across the country, moving asylum seekers into alternative accommodation, including former military sites which are designed to be self-contained to reduce impact on the local community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of the process, we engage with local authorities and police forces to ensure the safety and security of those in the surrounding area.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-771649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}