Village to vote on 'leaving UK' over migrant plans
A referendum is to be held on seceding from the UK over plans to move migrants to a former RAF base.
Residents of a village where about 930 migrants could be housed at a former RAF base have voted to hold a referendum on leaving the UK.
RAF Barnham in Suffolk was one of three Ministry of Defence (MoD) sites named in June as potential locations for asylum housing, as the government vowed to move away from hotel-based accommodation.
Opposition to the proposals has led to protests outside the base, near Thetford in Norfolk, with villagers now set to vote on whether to symbolically secede from the country.
The Home Office said: "We recognise the strength of feeling in local communities and are listening carefully to the concerns being raised."
On Friday, the government said the number of migrants that could be housed at the base had been reduced from 1,250 to about 930.
Villagers in Piddington, Oxfordshire, voted in September to become independent from the UK in a symbolic referendum held in protest at plans to house more than 1,000 migrants at a former military base at MoD Bicester.
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, only seven of the 80 people who attended Saturday's meeting at Barnham's village hall voted against the plans for a referendum.
A working group will meet on Monday to set out the timeline for the vote.
Barnham Parish Council chairman John Bauer, who supported the move, said: "Residents voted decisively in favour of holding a referendum as a means to demonstrate the strength of feeling in the village at the government's failure to consult anyone about a matter which will change the nature of the village.
"This democratic action stands in dramatic contrast to the high-handed approach the government is taking."
