Residents set up the Bicester Action Group to fight the plans

Cherwell District Council voted unanimously on Monday to try to take its case to the Court of Appeal.

Many residents are unhappy that former Ministry of Defence (MoD) land near Bicester is earmarked for a centre to house 750 male and female migrants.

But a High Court judge ruled in March that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was right to grant permission.

'Still so angry'

Dion Arrowsmith, a member of the Bicester Action Group set up to fight the centre, told the BBC: "Public feeling is still running so high, people are still so angry and frustrated by the whole system that we can't give up."

Laurie Stratford, deputy leader of Conservative-controlled Cherwell District Council, said ministers might rethink the plan if they lived nearby.

He said: "I would suggest if they had the idea of an accommodation centre being built next to their village and could see the impact it would have on the community and their services they would understand why local people are so strongly opposed to it."

Claim dismissed

The council's lawyers had argued that Mr Prescott ignored the results of a public inquiry when he granted planning permission.

But in his March ruling, Mr Justice Collins said: "I appreciate this will be of considerable disappointment to the many who oppose the establishment of this centre.

"But I can only act if an error of law is established and, for the reasons I have given, there is in my judgment no error which could produce relief.

"The defendant (Mr Prescott) was entitled to exercise his own judgment on the weight to be attached to the material matters and thus to differ from the inspector. The claim must therefore be dismissed."

It is planned that up to 400 single men, 50 single women and 300 family members will stay at the centre while they wait to find out if their applications for asylum have been successful.

They would be free to come and go as they please from the centre between the villages of Arncott and Piddington, which will have its own school and health facilities.