Will another village 'roar' over asylum plans?

Another English village could hold a symbolic vote about leaving the UK in protest at plans to house hundreds of asylum seekers nearby.

RAF Barnham in Suffolk might house up to 1,250 men as the government responds to a system "under significant strain".

A recent referendum saw villagers in Oxfordshire declaring the "Principality of Piddington" in response.

Barnham's parish council chair, John Bauer, who visited Piddington on Tuesday evening, said he thought there was a "very good chance" holding a local referendum "could achieve similar results".

What's led the council to consider such a move and where are the asylum plans up to?

RAF Barnham on the Norfolk-Suffolk border could house about 1,250 asylum seekers if Home Office plans go ahead [Martin Giles/BBC]

"I will have my pennyworth," says Ann Houston, when asked if she would vote in a potential Barnham referendum.

She hopes the poll will "raise the profile" and "keep the subject at the front of people's minds".

"It's been kept under the carpet, hasn't it?" she adds, reflecting a view held by several villagers.

Ann Houston fears the plans could 'change the atmosphere' of Barnham [DJ McLaren/BBC]

The Home Office announced plans on 25 June to house asylum seekers at RAF Barnham and two other sites.

A minister later said Barnham and sites in Bicester, Oxfordshire, and Linton-on-Ouse, North Yorkshire, could house a total of 3,750 asylum seekers.

Alex Norris, the border security and asylum minister, said the government had "inherited an asylum system under significant strain" and that former military sites would help "replace unsuitable hotels" for housing migrants.

A government factsheet about the Barnham plans says residents would be "single adult males" aged between 18 and 65 years old.

They would not be "detained" and could leave the facility, but "a specialist and experienced provider of security services" would be "permanently on site 24/7", alongside CCTV.

The Home Office also hopes there will be enough "essential services" there to reduce "the need for asylum seekers to leave the site".

But those aspirations have done little to settle Houston's mind.

"Barnham is a place where you can leave your doors open at the moment and that might change – it might change the atmosphere in the village," she says.

Houston adds she also has some sympathy with the government, which is "stuck between a rock and a hard place".

"Whatever they do won't be right," she says.

RAF Barnham and the accommodation blocks that could house asylum seekers are to the north of the village, on the way to Thetford, the nearest town.

The Home Office says because its plans for Barnham are "urgent and of national importance", it has submitted an Urgent Crown Development application directly to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, rather than going through a local planning process.

It says while no final decision has been made about the site, the application allows "relevant planning issues to be considered".

When the BBC visited Barnham, many did not want to have their views filmed.

But everyone we spoke to – some while picking up their children from school, others doing a spot of gardening – said the same thing: they would vote "yes" in a referendum to separate the parish from the rest of the UK.

Clinton Warner questioned why the UK has not got a "hard border" [DJ McLaren/BBC]

Clinton Warner runs The Borders Vehicle Services, just opposite the camp on the A134.

He believes people in Barnham are "losing faith" and hopes a referendum will "showcase views of those that aren't necessarily being given airtime" and "allow residents to enact change".

He adds that "a lot of people are not voicing their opinions" because "people are in fear of being labelled a racist".

He questions "why have we not got a hard border – why are we not being more careful with who we're allowing into the country?".

He says: "If the country was run as a business, the business would be broke with the way that it's currently acting."

A Home Office spokesperson said that it was "working on a fairer distribution of asylum accommodation across the country".

They added "£1 billion" has been "saved in costs since the election" in July 2024.

That sum includes "closing all asylum hotels and moving to alternative accommodation, including former military sites".

Some in Barnham, however, point to a 2024 National Audit Office report that concluded it would be more expensive to convert military sites than using hotels, though the analysis was carried out two years ago.

"We recognise the strength of local feeling in Barnham and Piddington and are listening carefully to the concerns being raised," the Home Office spokesperson added.

According to BBC Verify, arrivals of migrants in small boats between 1 January 2026 and 14 September 2026 were down 44% on the same period in 2025.

But tens of thousands of asylum claims and appeals are in a large backlog.

In June 2026, 40,168 people – across 32,401 asylum applications – were waiting for an initial decision. The number of people awaiting an initial decision was down by 56% on the previous year.

As of June 2026, a further 90,341 refused asylum applications were waiting the outcome of an appeal in the courts. This was up by 51% on the previous year.

Parish council chairman John Bauer believes RAF Barnham is "vastly unsuitable" [DJ McLaren/BBC]

Bauer was among a five-strong contingent from the village that went on a "fact-finding trip" to Piddington on Tuesday.

During the meeting, the chair of Piddington parish council, Tim McNally, gave the people of Barnham his support and told them a campaign "is a 24-hour job".

Bauer told the BBC the delegation would be reporting back to the council and residents, adding the amount of work involved was "daunting" but a decision on whether to hold a referendum would be taken in "days".

Barnham's Labour MP Peter Prinsley – who supported the idea of a ballot – added the motion could be "unanimously supported" by parishioners.

What does Bauer believe the government should do with asylum seekers?

"It's not Barnham's problem," he replys. "It becomes Barnham's problem if they house them on the site here.

"The government needs to do something – ideally they would have a better way of stopping the arrivals or more swift processing."

The 66-year-old retired physics teacher adds that he is "not just blaming this government" and that the previous government was "equally culpable in allowing a backlog to build up".

He says: "There are alternatives, I'm sure. It's not really for me to make that decision.

"All I can say is that some of the sites that they're choosing are vastly unsuitable for many reasons."

John Bauer (third from left) attended a meeting of Piddington Parish Council last night with some of his own parish colleagues [Sam Read/BBC]

According to Bauer, those reasons include nesting stone-curlews, a rare bird known to frequent the Breckland Special Protection Area, which the Barnham camp is inside.

"It's the fact that we know nothing about them whatsoever."

Referring to a recent Home Office leaflet for asylum seekers, he adds: "The government is publishing leaflets saying 'please don't rape our women'.

"The fact that they need to produce those leaflets is a cause for concern."

Peaceful protests have been taking place regularly outside RAF Barnham [PA Media]

In Wethersfield, Essex, a former RAF airbase in the countryside has been housing asylum seekers since July 2023.

The site has 1,245 bedspaces, which the Home Office says it intends to use "throughout the year".

The county's chief constable recently told the BBC that "crimes and incidents associated with the Wethersfield site are very low".

As of last week, there had been 23 arrests relating to "service users" at the site so far in 2026.

Villagers in Piddington voted overwhelmingly to become an independent state in a symbolic referendum [PA Media]

In Piddington's referendum, 91% of voters – a total of 285 – backed the proposal to leave the UK.

It has since described itself as "the village that roared".

Bauer admits he has heard "a few comments" about a parish poll being a "waste of time" and having "no legal weight".

But he and others seem determined to add their voices to Piddington's roar.

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