I am writing from Chilton where none of the old village were able to get into our community school which has serviced the village since the 1800s.

Seventee per cent of the catchment did not get offered their village school, half of which didn’t even get offered their third choice. About 275 family homes were built right next to the school, the other side of the A34 to the old village, taking our school allocations through no fault of their own.

During the public consultations we were advised several times that the original village would not be affected by any over-subscription issues to our village school. This obviously has not been honoured and we have been put at a permanent disadvantage by poor planning.

We have been offered a school place two villages away and the rest of the village shared out to various schools, fragmenting our community.

However, this is not our main concern. This is just the start of the forthcoming issues in this area unless very carefully managed.

We are a young village with young children, lots of babies, lots of toddlers and the forecast numbers are not adding up.

Every village and local school surrounding us has housing developments being considered on a grand scale, plus applications for at least another 112 houses in Chilton over green spaces, fields, paddocks, predominately on green field sites within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The village where we have been offered a school place has more than 500 houses planned, therefore they are likely be in the same position as us in a few years time.

If we have to accept the offered place, we will be shooting ourselves in the foot for the future as I have a younger son of 18 months who will be out of catchment for the school we have been allocated. I very much doubt that they will be able to make provisions for our out-of-catchment siblings.

I and many others may end up with two children in two schools miles away from each other unless numbers are recalculated and an action plan worked out for this area. If Oxfordshire County Council and local MPs will not help resolve such issues for these small communities in the interim, such as honouring agreements made while these big changes take place, I can’t imagine that they will receive the support they desperately need come May 7.

WENDY DAVIES
South Row, Chilton