Suffolk Village Considers Holding a Piddington-Style Referendum

Barnham, a quintessential English village earmarked to host 1,250 asylum seekers at a nearby military base, is sending a delegation to Piddington this week for discussions about holding its own independence referendum.

The Suffolk community is considering following the example of the defiant Oxfordshire village, where residents staged a high-profile in-or-out vote amid anger over a plan that could more than double Barnham’s population.

Last week, 90 per cent of voters in Piddington backed seceding from the United Kingdom in a symbolic referendum prompted by Home Office plans to house asylum seekers at MoD Bicester.

Barnham residents are now considering a similar move. Although such a vote would have no legal force, they believe it could draw wider attention to the controversial scheme, which is intended to reduce the number of migrants accommodated in hotels.

John Bauer, the 66-year-old chairman of Barnham Parish Council, told the Daily Mail that he would be among a group of villagers travelling to Piddington on Tuesday. He has already been in contact with his counterpart there.

Mr Bauer said the government’s apparent lack of interest in residents’ concerns meant that generating publicity could become a crucial part of the community’s effort to protect its way of life.

‘They don’t care about the people of Barnham. They don’t care that it will increase by two-and-a-half times the population of a village, with single men mostly of fighting age not contained within the site,’ Mr Bauer said.

‘Barnham is a small village with about 580 people. There are children of varying ages, and people are worried about them, as well as the womenfolk,’ he said.

‘Piddington has been incredibly successful in raising its profile. It has attracted national attention, as well as the attention of ministers and the Prime Minister. It has also gained international attention.’

He added: ‘I can’t honestly say I’ve spoken to anyone – and I’ve spoken to a lot of people – who has said, “I’m happy for them to come here”.’

‘To send a message to the government, I wouldn’t be surprised if 90 per cent voted [to secede from the UK],’ he said.

Barnham has a village hall, a church and a primary school, but no other amenities, such as a shop or pub, where asylum seekers – who will be allowed to come and go from the base – could spend their time.

Protests have been held outside RAF Barnham since the government announced the controversial plans in June. The proposals also involve sites at Bicester and Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire.

Tensions rose further after details of a private meeting between Home Office officials and councillors in Norfolk, which borders RAF Barnham, were leaked. During the meeting, the department reportedly admitted that the facilities could house ‘a lot more’ migrants than previously disclosed.

Violent disorder also broke out over several nights last month in Thetford, Norfolk, about two miles from Barnham, after it emerged that the Home Office was considering quadrupling the number of asylum seekers placed in private accommodation.

Barnham residents turned out en masse at the village hall on Wednesday last week – the day after Piddington held its referendum – to discuss their resistance movement.

Until now, it has focused on an ‘evidential’ approach involving planning issues such as environmental concerns.

The base was once used to store nuclear and chemical weapons and there are concerns the land could be contaminated.

The site is also a nesting ground for stone curlews, a species of bird so endangered that any development within 1,500m is forbidden.

But there is an increasing feeling that time is running out and a more emphatic, headline-grabbing approach may be needed, as the Home Office is expected to announce its decision this autumn – with asylum seekers moving in before Christmas.

Mother-of-two Collette Skelly, 58, who has lived in the village for 15 years and was at the meeting, said: ‘It’s a good way of raising publicity.

‘At the moment, there is nothing on the news about Barnham. So Piddington had to do it as a publicity stunt to raise attention.’

A man in his 60s added: ‘It’s on the news, they’re questioning the prime minister about Piddington today, so it’s working, isn’t it. I’d absolutely support it.’

Adrian Whittle, the leader of Reform UK at West Suffolk Council, declared he would support the village’s right to hold a referendum.

‘It raises the profile that people haven’t just given up, they want their country back, they want their lives back.’

Some locals were less certain, however, fearing it would act as a distraction from the formal planning approach.

James Hollins said: ‘The referendum is rubbish, it can’t go anywhere, it’s got no legal standing.

‘We can demonstrate but they’re not going to listen.’

Announcing the referendum result on Wednesday last week, Piddington Parish Council chairman Mr McNally said: ‘We have given a message to the world.’

Vice-chair Susannah Parden added: ‘We are Piddington, the village that roars.’

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the vote should be a ‘wake-up call’ for the government.

Barnham was last year unveiled as the site where evidence of the earliest known human-made fire had been uncovered.

Researchers found baked earth together with the earliest known Stone Age ‘lighter’ – a flint that was hit against pyrite, a rock also known as fool’s gold, to create a spark – that dated back 400,000 years.

The village also appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086, which recorded that it housed 35 families – a large village by the standards of the time.