Centres for asylum seekers in Britain are to be scrapped by the Government -- except for the one planned in Oxfordshire.

In a dramatic turn- around in Government policy, Immigration Minister Tony McNulty admitted on Friday that no more asylum centres would go ahead in the future, except those that already have permission.

But campaigners again- st the plans for a £60m, 750-person centre in Piddington, near Bicester, have said they now have real hope that it will not go ahead.

The centre was finally granted planning permission after being refused a number of times. But after objections were raised about its design, another planning inquiry has been scheduled for July 5.

Sue Baxter, of the Bicester Action Group (Bag), said: "I'm absolutely delighted they scrapped plans to built more asylum centres, but if it's Government policy not to have asylum centres, then why have just one in Bicester? That question has got to be asked.

"I feel that there is faint hope that the Bicester centre might not go ahead. There's not much more I can say before the planning inquiry, it all hangs in the balance. Who knows, they might dig their heels in and go on anyway, they've started the building."

Dionne Arrowsmith, of Bag, added: "It's good news for all those towns with surplus military land. It's a ray of optimism for us but unfortunately we are not out of the woods yet."

Banbury MP Tony Baldry said: "It's been an open secret that for some time the Government has failed to gain planning permission for other sites and so the idea of a network of centres is completely dead.

"The plan to build an asylum centre in Bicester strikes me as a completely mad idea, which is totally friendless, not one single other organisation supports it, including those who look after the welfare of asylum seekers.

"It seems a crazy way of spending £60m."

He said he would be seeking to persuade ministers to drop the scheme.

The Home Office had planned centres in rural locations in Nottinghamshire and Worcestershire and has spent an estimated £1m on searching for other sites.

Home Office spokesman Matt Brook said asylum applications had plummeted since 2001 when David Blunkett came up with the plans for accommodation centres.

He said: "The level of asylum seekers has gone down vastly, from 80,000 when the strategy started in 2001, to 30,000 this year and so the emphasis now is on removal."

When asked if the Government would continue with its plans to build the Bicester centre if it lost the inquiry, he said: "We can't speculate on the outcome of that inquiry. A decision will then be taken following that outcome."