Cherwell District Council have just approved Adderbury Parish Council’s application (19/02796/F) for a large community building with two bars, outside bar terrace area, cafeteria, sports/performance hall, changing and meeting rooms on the Milton Road in West Adderbury.
The development will include a MUGA (multi use games area) with 8 metre floodlighting. A massive 141 car parking spaces will also be provided to support large events and football tournaments. The car park will be lit by 5 metre floodlighting. No restrictions have as yet been set by CDC regarding the hours of operation of these facilities.
WARA representative Laurie Mayer spoke eloquently at the planning committee meeting against the size and location of the development, and Councillors Christine Heath and Ian Corkin also spoke to raise serious concerns about the impact of noise and light pollution on the residents of Henge Close.
However, all other councillors voted in favour of the development.
Incredibly, one councillor stated that “residents of Henge Close knew about the application before they bought their houses”. Since Henge Close was not even built at the time of the original “change of use application”, and as the “full” application covering the building, car park and MUGA was not submitted until last year, this is obvious rubbish, and just goes to show how little time some CDC councillors have spent actually looking at this application.
Another councillor suggested that there would be “lots of complaints” about noise and light pollution initially, but that these would drop off as residents “got used to it”.
Adderbury Parish Chair Diane Bratt spoke in favour of the application, stating that it had widespread support in the village. She also said that APC had gone to the trouble of moving the MUGA away from Henge Close – unfortunately, it has been replaced with a car park with 5m floodlighting which will be built right up to the boundary of Henge Close gardens.
We are sure that APC and certain residents of Twyford and East Adderbury will be celebrating their “victory” this evening. After all, it is residents of Twyford and East Adderbury that support these facilities, which are clearly not wanted by West Adderbury (see charts below – based on letters of support/objection to 19/02796/F).
It is easy to support these facilities when you live nowhere near them, and can make use of them without suffering any of the noise and light pollution, anti social behaviour and additional traffic which will be inflicted on West Adderbury. The refusal of Adderbury Parish Council to take any real steps to mitigate the effects that this development will have on West Adderbury residents is just further evidence of its complete and utter disregard and contempt for those of us living to the west of the Sor Brook.
The legitimate concerns of West Adderbury residents are dismissed in one letter of support for this development as “shallow and selfish criticisms“.
The author of this letter? Mr Rowland Bratt, the husband of Mrs Diane Bratt, Chair of Adderbury Parish Council. Their address? Aynho Road, East Adderbury, about as far away from the Milton Road as it is possible to be.
Who is the selfish party here? Those who wants to force a massive development on an area of the parish over a mile away from their own home, or those who just want to be left to enjoy the peace and quiet of the countryside?
Are you tired of being the dumping ground for facilities to be used by East Adderbury and Twyford? Are you wondering why Section 106 funds given to the Parish Council following the construction of Henge Close and Adderbury Fields are being used to provide facilities for other parts of the parish, rather than for much-needed traffic calming measures in West Adderbury?
Join WARA using the form at http://westadderbury.org/wara/, via our Facebook page, or email us on westadderbury@yahoo.com.