Around 18 army families have been living on the site at Wethersfield and Sky News understands the Home Office plans to move asylum seekers in this summer.

In April, Braintree District Council lost a High Court bid to prevent the move.

It is rare for military families to speak out but such is the level of frustration, a member of one of the families living on the base agreed to speak to Sky News anonymously.

They told us: "We've almost been moved off the base now before the asylum seekers move on. Originally we were given a good time period. It was a good couple of months. But over the last few weeks that's all shuffled.

"For some families, it's a week's notice. It's obviously quite hard for them. They're having to pack their whole lives up in a week."

I ask how families given a week's notice are feeling.

"The phrase I'd like to use probably contains a swear word. I think appalled - appalled is probably the nicer way to say it. Let down.

"They've railroaded everyone with this. I wish they'd have given us a choice and not made it feel so forced. If they'd had the conversations it would have been easier."

The military families - and locals we spoke to in the village of Wethersfield, which is a mile away - say they do not feel there has been sufficient consultation over the base's change of use, and that turning it into accommodation for asylum seekers will have an enormous impact on the area.

The government has said it wants to use large sites such as this one to house asylum seekers, to reduce the current hotel bill of £6m a day for migrants waiting for asylum claims to be processed.

It plans to put 1,700 asylum seekers on to the former air base. Wethersfield has a population of around 700.

At the front gates of the base, contractors can be seen coming and going - working on heating, sewage and construction - and it looks like accommodation blocks are being renovated.

A large white marquee can be seen close to the border fence at a side gate on the complex, and there are new green cabins which it is thought will be used as toilet blocks.

Locals have shared photographs of the large portacabins being transported through the narrow lanes of this rural location - further evidence, they say, of how much disruption is going on in this otherwise quiet part of the world.

Workmen are putting up tarpaulin in an apparent attempt to shield the base from the outside world - though one local told us he had requested the wire mesh fences which run along the perimeter of the base should be covered to give the community some privacy from the asylum seekers.

The residents we spoke to in Wethersfield say they are concerned about the number of people the site is earmarked for and the fact there is nothing for asylum seekers to do in the area.

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Nick Godley, from the campaign group Wethersfield Protests, said: "I think if you put the thick end of 2,000 people up on the base with no money and nothing to do, whoever they were - even if they were trainee vicars - I think you could well have problems.

"It's only human nature if people get bored they start looking for something to do and that something to do with a proportion of people, whoever they are, may well involve some sort of mischief."

A government spokesperson said: “Delivering accommodation on surplus military sites will provide cheaper and more orderly, suitable accommodation for those arriving in small boats which is more manageable for communities and will help to reduce the use of hotels.

“We have been closely engaging with families on the sites throughout this process and they will be moved to brand new, energy-efficient housing which will also be considerably closer to their duty station."