Longford Park Community News - Supplement #1

Supplemental Newsletter

September 2015

LONGFORD PARK COMMUNITY NEWS Boundary Change Information Update!  Following the article in the first newsletter about the forthcoming boundary changes affecting Longford Park a sizeable number of residents have contacted me to express their concern. It is extremely important that residents understand the full situation before deciding to take action. I have therefore obtained further information from Cherwell District Council (CDC) in an effort to ensure everyone is correctly informed.

Longford Park has always been planned as "an Urban extension of Banbury" CDC's Local Plan sets out broadly how the District will grow and change in the period up to 2031. Set out in this plan is the Council's strategy of focusing housing growth on Bicester and Banbury, to maximise the investment opportunities in the two towns, and to ensure that the level of development at Cherwell's villages "respects the character and beauty of our rural areas while meeting local needs". The development at Longford Park has been integrated into this plan.

Outline planning permission for Longford Park, then known as College Fields or simply "Bankside Urban Extension", was first approved back in 2009, when the Council invited proposals from developers. Paragraph 3.68 of this invite specifically set out:

Due to the increasing amount of prospective development around the Banbury Town Council area, the review Working Group agreed to consult on the principle of including all new developments which either had extant planning permissions or which had been included in the emerging local planning policy framework for some time within the Banbury Town Council boundary. Despite considering an objection from Bodicote Parish Council, and a presentation from the developers showing that work on Longford Park would start at the Bodicote end, the Working Group remained of the view that the size of the Longford Park development made it better suited to Banbury.

The recommendations made in the review were considered and agreed by the Council and the resultant Community Governance Order was issued in December 2013. The changes affecting Longford Park are scheduled to take place at the time of the next ordinary election for Banbury Town Council in 2016.

Of note is that all administrative boundaries affecting Longford Park (parish, ward and division) will be aligned from April 2016 which, CDC state, is "in the interest of efficient governance".

Longford Park, therefore, has always been regarded by CDC as an "urban extension" of Banbury itself.

As many will be aware from the last newsletter, Longford Park residents face a council tax increase as a result of the boundary change, though there will be no reassessment of tax bands. The key reason for the difference in Bodicote and Banbury tax precepts is the variance in the running costs of each Council.

Bodicote has fewer overheads and provides fewer services whereas Banbury has more and provides more (e.g. employs staff, events, parks, toilets, maintains buildings etc). Residents should consider the additional services Banbury Town Council will provide to Longford Park once established, including staffing and maintaining of the eventual country park and canal areas.

The Community Governance Review

Avenues for action

Despite being considered an urban extension of Banbury, the land on which Longford Park sits has historically been part of Bodicote. A community governance review enables councils to review and put in place or make changes to community governance systems and structures e.g. by creating, merging, abolishing or changing parish or town councils in the review area. Such reviews usually occur in circumstances such as changes in population, or in reaction to specific or local new issues.

Having considered the above information residents should reflect upon their position in relation to the matter. If residents are still minded to take action against the decision the following actions are potential options:

"The development is required to cater for the growth of Banbury, although the site abuts ribbon development adjacent to Oxford Road within the parish of Bodicote. The development should relate to the existing urban area, rather than Bodicote village."

The review affecting Longford Park was set up following a Cherwell District Council resolution in December 2012. The public, councillors, community groups, political parties, MP’s and Town and Parish Councils across the district were invited to submit comments and suggestions for consideration and Banbury Town Council was among the respondents, requesting to have the new prospective development areas of the town moved into their administrative area. longfordparkbanbury

Judicial Review The 2007 Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act does not provide a Right of Appeal against Community Governance Orders. However residents may be able to raise a challenge against the way in which the decision was made via a Judicial Review. Such a review would examine whether Cherwell followed the correct procedures rather than the rights and wrongs of the conclusion reached.

CDC state their community governance review met the requirements of the Act and guidance, and believe the review and associated decision is legally robust in terms of a judicial -

Supplemental Newsletter review challenge on grounds of procedural fairness. If residents are minded to pursue this avenue then we would have to seek legal advice as to whether aspects of the review could be challenged. Such advice would be costly and residents would collectively have to consider how to approach and fund this.

Petition An alternative to judicial review would be to petition for a further Community Governance review.

Under the 2007 Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act, local electors throughout England can petition their principal council for a community governance review to be undertaken. For a petition to be valid it must be signed by the requisite number of local electors based on the most recently published electoral register. There are three petition thresholds: a) for an area with less than 500 local electors, the petition must be signed by at least 50% of them b) for an area with between 500 and 2,500 local electors, the petition must be signed by at least 250 of them c) for an area with more than 2,500 local electors, the petition must be signed by at least 10% of them CDC have confirmed that any such petition could only be completed by those local electors residing within the area to which the community governance review would apply, so in this case the area would refer to Longford Park.

Things to consider CDC have made the following observations regarding a petition: Cherwell is currently under no duty to conduct a further review Under the 2007 Act councils have a duty to carry out a community governance review upon receipt of a valid petition UNLESS it has carried out a review within the last two years.

Cherwell would be under no such duty until January 2016.

September 2015 change would not take place until 2020, the next ordinary year of election.

Cherwell have stated that the full community governance review of 2013 followed due process, had full consultation and have advised me that, whilst not pre-judging any decision the Council may make following a community governance review, for many years there has been a general policy of preferring urban extensions over extending villages.

Residents should therefore be mindful that a further community governance review could be an expensive, resource intensive and potentially futile undertaking, especially for a council whose budgets and manpower are already being stretched to the limit.

Other issues Some residents have voiced their concern about associated issues including potential drops in home values, rises in insurances and possible misselling based on the village location.

Insurances and values will be linked to postcode and it is worth noting that the Post Office is reluctant to change a postcode once it has been allocated. The village name element of an address is not an absolute requirement, so whilst after May 2016 it won’t be technically accurate for Longford Park residents to cite “Bodicote” in addresses, there’s nothing to stop residents from continuing to do so.

Regarding the use of "village" as a selling point, Longford Park itself could be considered to be a "village lifestyle" so residents would have to be very clear on the specific assurances they were given when purchasing and review all of the information they were provided in sales documents and solicitor searches. The matter is presumably different for everyone and is likely to be more of a question for builders and solicitors to answer.

What next?

Cherwell's resources are scarce

Having considered all of this information, residents are urged to review their own position and consider whether they wish to take action or are content to let the matter of the community governance review rest.

A Community Governance Review would take 12 months to conduct and such reviews are costly in terms of time and resources. The small team who carry out reviews are also the same team who deliver elections and deliver the democratic process (e.g. meetings) for both Cherwell and South Northants.

Where residents wish to take action could you notify me directly of the action they wish to take (Judicial Review or petition). This will be a fresh count following this additional information. If you have already contacted me about this it is vital you contact me again to provide your updated position.

Cherwell have competing priorities during 2016

I hope that any further action will be taken up by any eventual Longford Park residents association/committee, though I am happy to act as facilitator and coordinator in the interim.

Both the national Police and Crime Commissioner Elections and all out elections take place next year and Cherwell's resource is committed to these elections. Cherwell would not be in a position to commence any review until at least July 2016, concluding by July 2017.

Contact!

Any changes in Longford Park's governance would not take effect until 2020

Facebook: Longfordparkbanbury

In the event that a petition was successful and a further review did recommend moving Longford Park back from Banbury to Bodicote, a change would not be immediate. Both Bodicote Parish Council and Banbury Town Council are due for election in 2016, and as the review would not be completed until 2017 any longfordparkbanbury

Twitter: longparklunch Email: carl.purkins@gmail.com Contact Address: 17 Longford Park Road.