Andy Burnham has been accused of 'bypassing' rural communities in a bid to move asylum seekers to disused military sites, amid fears women in a quaint Yorkshire village could soon be 'outnumbered six to one'.

Labour announced in June that it planned to house migrants at three former bases, including RAF Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire.

The Prime Minister defended the proposal, arguing that people in more affluent areas would have to 'do their share' in housing asylum seekers, as the number of small boat migrants arriving in the UK under his premiership topped 3,000.

For two of the sites, MoD Bicester in Oxfordshire and MoD Barnham in Suffolk, the Government is pursuing a fast-track planning process under which applications are submitted directly to Housing Secretary Angela Rayner, rather than being considered first by the local council.

Calum Miller, the Lib Dem MP for Bicester & Woodstock, said Mr Burnham was 'bypassing local scrutiny' and showing 'contempt' for local people.

'The Government is abusing a process that was intended for real urgency to bypass local people,' he told the Daily Mail.  

In Linton-on-Ouse, the decision on whether to approve plans to move 1,200 asylum seekers into the local RAF base will first go to North Yorkshire Council, which is run by a Conservative minority administration.

Its roughly 600 residents saw off a similar proposal by the last Conservative government and are urging councillors to reject it this time around.

Retired secretary Christine Crouch, 77, had a sign reading 'Still the wrong plan, wrong place' in her tidy cottage garden.

She told the Daily Mail: 'I have lived here for four years. I moved here because it is a nice, quiet place.

'It was just when the previous plan to house asylum seekers on the RAF base was shelved. But they have brought it back again now, and we are not happy. Linton-on-Ouse is not the right place.'

Jareth Elizabeth Cartner, who was born and bred in the area and used to work in the airfield's officers' mess, said: 'We have ten generations buried in Newton-on-Ouse churchyard and my family goes back to 1650 around here.

'The likes of us are being ignored by the Government. I don't agree with putting asylum seekers in the base, because the village has nothing, except one pub. What are they going to do all day?

'But, whatever happens, happens, there isn't much we can do about it. Because that bloody bunch of clowns in London don't give a damn about us. I feel that I have been stabbed in the back by Burnham.'

The 76-year-old pointed out that there was a play park right next to the base. 

'If you are a parent would you want your kids playing where there are more than a thousand young men nearby, with nothing to do. Would you want your daughter wandering around or going to the play park.'

The play park is behind the village hall near to the College Arms pub. Linton Stores, which was the only shop, closed down a few years ago.

Joe Crockett, 35, was taking a walk with his four-year-old daughter.

Mr Crockett, a confectioner, lives with his daughter and pregnant wife in one of the former RAF homes.

'The announcement that they are going to put asylum seekers in the village hit us with shock and horror,' he said.

'I work nights three times a week, and my daughter here and my wife will be home by themselves. And that is a big time concern.

'The population is going to double and they're going to be young men and the nearest police station is a 30 minute drive away.

'They are all men, from a completely different culture. They have broken the law to get here, so breaking the law when they are here just won't be a problem for them.

'They are not refugees, if you've crossed four or five safe countries to climb in a boat to England, you are not a refugee.

'They are going to be able to come and go as they please. They are not going to be fenced in.'

One resident was displaying a 'for sale' sign in his garden beside posters protesting about the asylum centre plan.

'We had sold the house... for five days,' said the owner David, 54. 

'And then it was announced that the RAF base was going to be used for asylum seekers and the buyers pulled out.

'I can't blame them. I wouldn't buy here. The buyers pulled out, they told us, 100 percent because of the asylum centre announcement.'

A developer purchased 20 former RAF homes on Linton Place cul de sac to rent out. Only three have tenants in because they are beside the main gates to the former base. And one renter plans to move out shortly.

'I'm moving my family out because I don't want to risk them around what the country might be allowing in,' he said.

Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York Central, has hit out at the plans as 'unsuitable' because it will mean there are six men for every woman living in the village. She added that the airfield is next to a primary school and nursery.

The Left-winger's comments came despite her repeated calls for the Government to adopt a more generous approach towards asylum seekers and opposition to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood's immigration reforms. 

Amid the Syrian migration crisis in 2015, she told a Refugees Welcome protest: 'What does it matter if we have to wait another week for a hospital visit or if our class sizes are slightly bigger?'

The Government is attempting to move asylum seekers into former military bases in a bid to empty hotels, with the Home Office announcing on Tuesday that it would stop using the Grand Metropole Hotel on Blackpool Promenade. 

Home Office minister Anna Turley said the changes were a matter of 'fairness'. 

'I think this is about fairness, and we won't be asking anyone to take more than they can,' she told BBC Breakfast. 

'It's about their fair share, and we have to look across the country at what is appropriate for areas to take, what is the infrastructure, what is manageable with the local community. So this is about fairness.' 

Ms Turley insisted less affluent areas such as Blackpool had already taken their 'fair share' of asylum seekers, which had put a 'huge burden' on communities and created 'real civil unrest'.

Former Yorkshire Cricket Club bowler Howard Cooper, 77, who played alongside Sir Geoff Boycott, moved into Linton-on-Ouse three years ago after the previous plan to house asylum seekers at the base was shelved.

'We were quite surprised when it was resurrected,' he said.

'It's a small village with only 200 males at the moment, it is going to be six times that number when the asylum centre opens up. It seems unreasonable.

'The village is taking more than our fair share. 100 males in the base would be a lot.

'It's is going to cost an absolute fortune. It is not cheaper to house people in these sorts of places.

'There will be extra police. We haven't seen police for years, but over the last few months we have seen police. They are obviously expecting a lot of protests.

'We are not protesting physically, but there are posters going up, and we are contacting the press and our MPs.

It comes as an analysis by the Daily Mail has revealed that there are 17 local authorities with no taxpayer-supported asylum seekers.

Asylum seekers who are waiting for a decision on their asylum claim are often eligible for accommodation and money to cover their living expenses. This is provided by the Home Office, and the migrants themselves are dispersed across the country.

Home Office figures showing the number of supported asylum seekers per local authority at the end of March reveal the areas that currently house no migrants are overwhelmingly rural beauty spots. These include the Cotswolds, Derbyshire Dales, Malvern Hills, the New Forest and the Scottish Highlands.

Others include Mid Devon, East Hertfordshire, Ceredigion (a scenic county in west Wales) and Hart, a 118-square-mile local authority taking in major towns, rural parishes and villages in Hampshire.

The Gloucestershire market town of Tewkesbury is also on the list, as are the Isle of Wight, Isles of Scilly, Orkney Islands, Shetland Islands, Mid and East Antrim and Mid Ulster, and Na h-Eileanan Siar – an island chain off the west coast of Scotland.