Monday always signals the delivery of the junk mail by the postie and
last week it included perhaps the most expensive, pointless and self effacing
item - the periodic newsletter from WODC and its leader Barry Norton. An over
elaborate pretence of self glorification it could, if it addressed the
important issues be a useful communication but it doesn't.
For example Cllr Simon Hoare, Cabinet Member for Resources- remember him he’s the one that lent £9 million of YOUR money to a bankrupt Icelandic bank; well have you got our money back Simon and if not why are you still in the Cabinet? And your long term investment, commercial property in Oxford but no business units in Chippy. Really does support the local community here on the margins of Witney Only District Council.
In fact if you read this pamphlet “Creating Futures” it soon becomes very clear that if you live in Chipping Norton you don’t have much of one. No town centre strategy for Chippy but we will be contributing to ones for Witney and Carterton. In Transport: improvements to junctions on the A40 in Witney and in Ducklington Lane and Station Lane but nothing to improve the traffic flow through Chipping Norton, but then that’s alright as WODC turned down the Sainsbury application that would have brought traffic and prosperity to the town. As far as planning for housing is concerned WODC has abandoned Chippy altogether leaving it to the ongoing Neighbourhood Plan to determine the most appropriate locations for future growth' who?? (Not another of those 2003 future of Chipping Norton survey type plans surely)?
Just who exactly has input into this "Neighbourhood plan" and who has the final say in any such plan? Clearly Witney Only District Council doesn’t care, and probably without “Chippy First” and the late Gerry Alcock neither does anyone on CNTC.
Even though Chipping Norton is to have 600 more houses, and that will not include the old hospital, or nurses home or ambulance station sites as these are classified as windfall sites and the old doctors surgeries and vets practice premises will be the same category the likely total by 2029 could be 750 producing around 2000 more residents but no more jobs. WODC is a green council committed to residents having to travel to Oxford, Banbury or further afield for employment and competitively priced shopping. A green authority but with increased traffic pollution because of its policies and plans.
It claims it is saving money by pooling services with Cotswold and Forest of Dean District Councils. But why has it not been done before? Probably nobody in the cabinet knew where Cinderford was or how to get there. Now that WODC has taken on board the concept of combining services how about this radical idea that it historically opposed – Let’s have 3 unitary authorities in Oxfordshire; South Oxfordshire based in Abingdon, Oxford City based in Oxford and North Oxfordshire based in Banbury and most importantly lets have Witney in South Oxfordshire and Chippy in North Oxfordshire. As an alternative lets get rid of WODC and its self important Cabinet and hive up to the county the services like waste collection and disposal, housing and benefits, Environmental health and protection and strategic planning and hive down to what are currently parish and town councils local planning decisions, licensing, car park operation and public toilets. No more WODC, no more self important District Councillors, just truly cost efficient local government
For example Cllr Simon Hoare, Cabinet Member for Resources- remember him he’s the one that lent £9 million of YOUR money to a bankrupt Icelandic bank; well have you got our money back Simon and if not why are you still in the Cabinet? And your long term investment, commercial property in Oxford but no business units in Chippy. Really does support the local community here on the margins of Witney Only District Council.
In fact if you read this pamphlet “Creating Futures” it soon becomes very clear that if you live in Chipping Norton you don’t have much of one. No town centre strategy for Chippy but we will be contributing to ones for Witney and Carterton. In Transport: improvements to junctions on the A40 in Witney and in Ducklington Lane and Station Lane but nothing to improve the traffic flow through Chipping Norton, but then that’s alright as WODC turned down the Sainsbury application that would have brought traffic and prosperity to the town. As far as planning for housing is concerned WODC has abandoned Chippy altogether leaving it to the ongoing Neighbourhood Plan to determine the most appropriate locations for future growth' who?? (Not another of those 2003 future of Chipping Norton survey type plans surely)?
Just who exactly has input into this "Neighbourhood plan" and who has the final say in any such plan? Clearly Witney Only District Council doesn’t care, and probably without “Chippy First” and the late Gerry Alcock neither does anyone on CNTC.
Even though Chipping Norton is to have 600 more houses, and that will not include the old hospital, or nurses home or ambulance station sites as these are classified as windfall sites and the old doctors surgeries and vets practice premises will be the same category the likely total by 2029 could be 750 producing around 2000 more residents but no more jobs. WODC is a green council committed to residents having to travel to Oxford, Banbury or further afield for employment and competitively priced shopping. A green authority but with increased traffic pollution because of its policies and plans.
It claims it is saving money by pooling services with Cotswold and Forest of Dean District Councils. But why has it not been done before? Probably nobody in the cabinet knew where Cinderford was or how to get there. Now that WODC has taken on board the concept of combining services how about this radical idea that it historically opposed – Let’s have 3 unitary authorities in Oxfordshire; South Oxfordshire based in Abingdon, Oxford City based in Oxford and North Oxfordshire based in Banbury and most importantly lets have Witney in South Oxfordshire and Chippy in North Oxfordshire. As an alternative lets get rid of WODC and its self important Cabinet and hive up to the county the services like waste collection and disposal, housing and benefits, Environmental health and protection and strategic planning and hive down to what are currently parish and town councils local planning decisions, licensing, car park operation and public toilets. No more WODC, no more self important District Councillors, just truly cost efficient local government