The Home Office acted with supreme arrogance yesterday in refusing to reassure the people of Kidlington and Oxfordshire it would sort out the problems at Campsfield House.

By and large, the people of Kidlington have taken a reasonable stance towards the troubled immigration detention centre, accepting it is in their midst and not, as some might, demanding it is shut down in a pique of Nimbyism.

They know these centres must go somewhere and this one is in their collective backyard.

But that attitude deserves some respect and recognition from the faceless civil servants at the Home Office.

Campsfield has now had two break-outs in less than a year - placing the safety of people of Kidlington and further afield at risk from men desperate to escape the place of their incarceration.

For the Home Office to refuse to answer an Oxford Mail question - put on behalf of you - seeking assurances that these appalling security lapses will be fixed to make us all safer is intolerable.

These people are civil servants funded by taxpayers, but serving the public seems to be the least of their concerns.

Although it appears there is something deeply wrong at Campsfield, we do not pretend it is an easy place to run.

But that does not excuse treating the neighbours of the centre with such ill-disguised disregard and contempt.