Residents living in 'limbo' after Fairford incident
BBCResidents living close to RAF Fairford have said that they are "living in limbo" following the recent arrests near the base.
More than 80 households in the village of Whelford were evacuated from their homes on 27 September 2026 after a major incident was declared near the airbase. Seven people have been arrested in connection to the incident but no one has been charged.
Glenda Daniels, who has lived in the village for 23 years, said that the incident has left the village with an "overwhelming feeling of sadness".
Government representatives have declined to comment but another resident said communication with residents should have been better during the incident.
"Everybody was so unnerved by it and nobody really knew what to do, so we all just went straight to the community centre in Cirencester," Daniels said, adding that there was a "feeling of unreality" to it.
Although residents were allowed back into their homes from Monday night, Daniels said that a feeling of uncertainty remained.
"It was a relief to come home but also eerie because we were isolated within the cordon and we didn't really know whether we could leave the house or not," she said.
Daniels added that once the police cordon had been lifted, many residents felt more wary than usual, a feeling which has not eased since the USA pulled their B-1 bombers from the base on 4 October.
"They've left, but there's still heightened security there, so we're once again left with questions unanswered," she added.
Daniels told the BBC that the instruction to evacuate caused a "seismic" shift from the everyday life Whelford was used to.
"It's about whether we feel safe rather than whether we are safe. We are feeling destabilised and like we are in limbo."
Daniels said that reassurance from the government would help residents to feel more safe and stable, but added that she thinks that they are "unlikely" to get this.
"We just want honesty," she added.
"We can adapt if people are honest with us. We can see what's going on inside the base with our own eyes, and that makes us more nervous probably than the truth would."
Ruth Foxman has lived in Whelford for 16 years and told the BBC that she felt like a lot of residents were still processing what had happened.
"It was very real, it was very frightening, but you kind of just detach from what's going on - if you're told to evacuate, you just do," she said.
"When you are tired or scared, you can run home and hide, safe and secure in your own home. That was a fundamental loss to us all for two days. To have that refuge denied was very hard to come to terms with."
Foxman said that residents have a WhatsApp group chat that initially informed her of what was going on, however this was the only indication they had that anything was wrong before the evacuation order was given.
"I think for older people who were less likely to have looked at the messages, they didn't know what was happening until there were armed police on their doorstep," she explained.
"It's a completely bewildering experience to feel that you've been thrown out of your home and your home is no longer safe."
Like Daniels, Foxman expressed that she wished to see improved communication with residents about possible threats to their safety.
"There may well have been plans in place, but none of that filtered down into the community," she said.
"I'd also like the MoD emergency phone to be answered in the middle of the night," Foxman added, referring to the Ministry of Defence's failure to answer their emergency phone line when a Whelford resident called the number in the early hours of 27 September.
The Ministry of Defence did not address the BBC's query about the emergency phone line, but Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton has insisted that UK bases are safe and secure, adding that the removal of bombers from the base was to "reduce risk".
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