County councillors have agreed to try to provide a library and up to 22 teachers for a proposed asylum seekers' centre near Bicester.

The Home Office asked Oxfordshire County Council to submit a tender, despite an imminent decision on whether the Government's plan for a centre housing 750 people will go ahead.

The executive board agreed, in a bid to protect services in the community -- even though the council opposes the asylum centre plan.

Council leader Keith Mitchell said the scheme would not put "any extra pressure on council taxpayers".

He said: "We expect to come up with a surplus on this and do not expect to be funding government provision plans."

Catherine Fulljames, Conservative county councillor for the Ploughley division, said it would be hard to recruit 22 teachers from the Bicester area, which has a rate of unemployment of only 0.6 per cent.

She said it was premature to bid for the contract before the public inquiry had reached its decision.

She added: "I believe we should tender but at a later date."

A public inquiry into the plan for surplus Ministry of Defence land between Arncott and Piddington ended earlier this year.

The inquiry inspector Paul Taylor has sent his report to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

The Government has pledged to abide by the inspector's recommendation.