India, Sept. 16 -- Residents of a small Oxfordshire village have voted overwhelmingly in favour of symbolically seceding from the United Kingdom, in a tongue-in-cheek referendum organised to protest plans to accommodate more than 1,200 asylum seekers at a nearby former military site.

Piddington, a village of around 350 people near Bicester and about 25 kilometres from Oxford, held the unofficial vote on Tuesday after the Government announced plans to house up to 1,256 single adult male asylum seekers at a former Ministry of Defence facility.

Of the 312 ballots counted, 285 residents voted in favour of the village seeking to leave the UK and pursue self-determination. Twenty-six voted against, while one ballot was spoiled.

The turnout w...