UK approves asylum center despite village ‘independence’ vote

London: The British government on Thursday approved a plan to convert an old defense facility into accommodation for more than 1,200 asylum seekers, despite a nearby village symbolically voting to leave the United Kingdom in protest against the project.

The Labour government, which has pledged to rehouse asylum seekers currently accommodated in hotels, plans to open a number of reception centers on former military sites.

On Thursday the government said it had approved one near the village of Piddington, a community of 350 inhabitants 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Oxford, which held a ballot in September to oppose the plan.