Bicester's MP Tony Baldry has questioned a Government department over its handling of the asylum accommodation centre planned to be built near the town.

He asked the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister why it had held a public inquiry into the proposed 750-person centre if the Government intended to take no notice of its outcome.

Mr Baldry said: "Of the Bicester accommodation centre, the then Minister for Citizenship and Immigration said at the dispatch box that the Government would abide by the outcome of any public inquiry, and went on to say that it would be both fair and democratic.

"The public inquiry took place; the inspector ruled on planning grounds that the development should not go ahead. The Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott metaphorically put up two fingers to that and said that, because it was Government policy, the development would go ahead regardless.

"What on earth is the point of holding a public inquiry if the Government intend to take absolutely no notice of its outcome? What is either fair or democratic about that, or is it just as worthless as all the rest of the Government's big conversation?"

In response, Housing and Planning Minister Keith Hill said: "I must inform the honourable gentleman that there was nothing extraordinary about the procedure adopted in the Bicester case.

"On average, the First Secretary of State disagrees with inspectors' recommendations in about 10 per cent of cases. There is nothing further to add to the reasons given in that decision."

Cherwell District Council is challenging a High Court judge's decision to allow the Home Office to build the centre between Arncott and Piddington.