County councillors will decide next week whether to bid to provide library and education services for a proposed asylum seekers' centre.
The Home Office has asked Oxfordshire County Council to submit a bid to supply the services, despite an imminent decision on whether the 750-person centre will go ahead at surplus MoD land between Piddington and Arncott, near Bicester.
Dionne Arrowsmith, of Bicester Action Group, which is fighting plans for the centre, criticised the move as premature.
She said it was unfair to ask the council to bid when a decision had not been made on the centre.
She said: "The cost of doing that is people's time and resources. It could be money spent only to find that the decision goes against them -- then it's money down the drain at our expense.
"It is out of order to ask them to do this before we get the result, especially given we are only talking about a few weeks."
She was also worried about what would happen if the council declined to bid.
Mrs Arrowsmith said: "If the council declines because of the costs, who else is going to provide education services? Would they have to go out to private services? Can you imagine that?"
The issue will be discussed by the council on Tuesday.
Last month, executive members agreed to ask officers to examine arrangements for the provision of education and library services for the Home Office-run centre, if it is given the go-ahead.
The item was not discussed in public because it involved confidential contractual arrangements.
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