David Davis is to speak to campaigners at a public meeting

Cherwell District Council is trying to stop a decision to erect the centre to house 750 asylum seekers between Arncott and Piddington.

A judicial review, at the Royal Courts of Justice on the 16 and 17 March, could overturn John Prescott's move.

David Davis MP will speak at Thursday's meeting at Bicester Community College.

Local services stretched

The site, on former Ministry of Defence (MoD) land, will be house up to 400 single men, 50 single women and 300 family members while their asylum applications are processed.

But campaigners fear the rural area will not be able to cope with a centre of that size, two miles from Bicester.

They also argue that there are insufficient facilities to accommodate the numbers of asylum seekers and local services would be stretched.

Mr Davis is expected to outline how the Conservatives would tackle the asylum situation - mainly by scrapping plans for large rural centres and replacing them with small urban-based ones.