PLACARDS stating "lunatics have taken over asylum" and "Lord Haw Haw is alive and well and working for France" were just some of the views on show at the Throckmorton rally.

A thousand people from villages surrounding the airfield, as well as Pershore and Evesham, flocked to the site to show their support for continuing action against the plans.

One woman said she feared for her daughter's safety should refugees move into the area.

"My daughter has just started at Flyford First School," said Sheila Bratt, who has just moved to Bishampton.

"This asylum centre is wrong from both points of view - there's nothing here to support something of this size.

"Having a young daughter you worry about what's going to happen when they're allowed out as there's nothing for them to do."

Inhuman

Jeremy Marshall, who lives in Hill and Moor, said the plans were "inhuman".

"We feel that the asylum seekers themselves need to be treated better by this Government," said Mr Marshall.

"They need to be faster-tracked through the system and for the legal ones to be integrated quickly they need to be nearer the proper facilities. To stick them five miles from that is totally inhuman.

"They're spending millions of pounds on an experiment which hasn't been proved to work in other countries."

Jean Gibson, of Fladbury, near Evesham, said the asylum seekers will suffer if moved to Throckmorton.

"We suffer enough around here," she said.

"The asylum seekers will suffer even more. I hope this rally will have made an impact."

Former England cricketer Neal Radford said the Government should listen to the residents of Sangatte, in France, to see what the impact will be in Worcestershire.

The bowler, who played for Worcestershire County Cricket Club, said the French village had been adversely affected by the masses of immigrants living there.

"We've just got to see what's going on there to see that rural areas are the wrong place to put asylum seekers," said Mr Radford, who lives near to the proposed site.

"This site is wrong and the people of this rural community have had enough.

"The people here have had so much over the last four years and yet they're still being dumped on."