CDC have just published the revised Local Plan for public consultation. This is the last step before it is presented to the Secretary of State for final decision. Given the coalitions stance on housing and development this more likely to be passed without any consideration on what we believe to be acceptable. So much for the Localism Act.

The revised plan has basically ignored all our concerns. The only minor change I can see is they are proposing a reduction of housing on the land to the west of southam road. Currently from 300 down to 90. However the number for north of hanwell fields (BAN5) has increased from 400 to 500.  Everything else is still on the cards.

I just need to point out that I have not completely read all the documentation as there are a number of documents many of which are 300 pages each. So please bear with me.

The only thing that is slightly to our advantage is the local county council elections are coming up. Perhaps we should send a message to our councillors that they really need to start listening to us or they will no longer be councillors. The thing that I’m most concerned with is – who or what lets these out of touch idiots make such decisions about the direction and the structure (both physically and socially) of Banbury. We have a chief exec from a different council, we have a council leader and the head of planning committee who both live outside the district, how can they possibly have our best interests in mind.

The attraction for people to move to Banbury is the rural market town that it presents itself as. It is not a sprawl of urban defecation that many people want to avoid and yet this council is determined to change the very fabric that makes this town so appealing and turn in to excatly that. They should be ashamed to be our local councillors.