Campaigners against the proposed accommodation centre for asylum seekers outside Bicester are hoping the Government will have a change of heart following the resignation of Home Secretary David Blunkett.

Bicester Action Group member Sue Baxter said: "There is now a new Home Office team as the immigration minister Beverley Hughes resigned earlier.

"I hope there will be a change of attitude by Charles Clarke, the new Home Secretary, as Mr Blunkett did not want to let go of his agenda.

"I think there is now room for negotiation over the Home Office's plan for a large centre in a rural area compared with a small centre in an urban area, which was preferred by the professionals handling asylum seekers.

"Even a small centre in a rural location is better than a centre that will be bigger than the nearby Bullingdon Prison."

As reported in the late edition of yesterday's Oxford Mail, Bicester MP Tony Baldry said: "I hope the incoming Home Secretary, unfettered by any previous decision, will look afresh at this proposal and decide it is not a good policy, not a sensible place and not actually good use of limited Home Office funds."

Mr Baldry, who said the Refugee Council had described the proposed centre at Piddington as "totally inappropriate", added that he would ask Charles Clarke to take the opportunity to think again.

He said: "No one except the Government thinks it is a good idea.

"There is not one organisation handling asylum seekers who supports the centre."

He added that he had pointed out to Prime Minister Tony Blair in the Commons that Bullingdon Prison was severely overcrowded.

Mr Baldry said: "The Home Office budget is so strapped that the governor of the prison cannot even draw on discretionary funds to improve conditions.

"Yet the same Home Office strapped budget was going to spend £60m on building an accommodation centre for asylum seekers."