THE real Chipping Norton set is standing up to be counted after becoming fed up the town’s name being linked to the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

Residents fear the town’s reputation is being tarred because of the links to the area of the so-called “Chipping Norton set”.

The group of friends is made up of key movers and shakers, including Prime Minister David Cameron, who is the town’s MP, former newspaper executive Rebekah Brooks and News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth.

Chipping Norton resident Keith Ruddle, 61, a member of the team of volunteers who produce the Chipping Norton News newsletter, said: “There has been obviously a lot of press about the Chipping Norton set and I think a lot of people in the town get a bit cheesed off to be honest.

“Chipping Norton itself is a working Cotswold town with a lot of history and heritage.

“A lot of the attention has been around a small number of individuals who don’t actually live in Chipping Norton, they live out in the sticks.”

Former town councillor Gerry Alcock has also become increasingly annoyed with the link to coverage of the hacking scandal.

He added: “I think it’s a terrible shame that these spivs have brought the town’s name into disrepute. It’s appalling.

“They have got nothing to do with the town and the town has got nothing to do with them.”

Mayor Chris Butterworth added: “The residents and town council, and the people who work in Chipping Norton, are the real Chipping Norton set.”

Mr Ruddle yesterday offered Mrs Brooks a job at the newsletter after she resigned as chief executive of News International on Friday.

Chipping Norton News is published monthly by a 20-strong team of volunteers and has a circulation of about 2,000.

Dr Ruddle said the experience would help the former editor of The Sun and News of the World “get back to the basics” of journalism.

Mr Ruddle said Mrs Brooks, who lives in nearby Sarsden, was welcome to help out in a letter published in The Guardian newspaper yesterday .

He said: “If Rebekah joins the News, she will see it’s about real communication of news and views for the community and by the community.

“No hacking, no blagging – only honest amateur sleuthing, as polite and as balanced as possible.

“We on the editorial team do not want bricks thrown through our windows.”

None of the members of the “Chipping Norton set” actually live in the west Oxfordshire town.

The small group of political and media figures mostly live close to the A361 between Chipping Norton and Burford.

The member with the closest links to the town is longstanding local resident Jeremy Clarkson, whose family home is just south of Chipping Norton.

The Top Gear TV presenter is a leading fundraiser for the Chipping Norton Lido open-air swimming pool.

Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks – who was arrested in connection with the phone-hacking scandal on Sunday – and her husband Charlie Brooks, a horse-racing journalist and former trainer, live in Sarsden, near Churchill.

Prime Minister David Cameron, who has often socialised with the Brookses, has his constituency home at Dean, south of Chipping Norton.

Elisabeth Murdoch, the daughter of News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, and her husband Matthew Freud, a public relations consultant, live at Burford Priory, which they bought for £6m in 2008. The couple recently hosted a party attended by BBC director-general Mark Thompson, Wantage MP Ed Vaizey and a number of other senior politicians and media figures.

Other names linked to the group include Charles Dunstone, the founder of Carphone Warehouse, and rock musician and farmer Alex James, who lives near Kingham.