RESIDENTS of an Oxfordshire village are fighting to break away and form their own parish.

Cherwell District Council is conducting a governance review following a request from West Adderbury Residents Association (WARA) to decide whether Adderbury parish should be split into two areas – East Adderbury (with Twyford) and West Adderbury, near Banbury.

Some residents who live in the west of the village say the concerns they have about plans for the village are being ignored by the current parish council.

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They therefore want to create a separate council to represent the voices of residents in the area and keep its 'special identity'.

Oxford Mail:

WARA said: "The law requires parish council governance to be ‘reflective of the identity and interests’ of the community in the area and to be ‘effective and convenient.’ Adderbury Parish Council is none of these things. It fails on all counts.

"We are currently at the mercy of an administration fixated on pursuing its agenda to the detriment of issues we consider far more pressing and important. When a majority systematically uses its power to deny a minority its rights, this becomes tyranny and is not democracy."

Some of the concerns that residents have – according to WARA – are the 'dangerous growth of speeding traffic, the costly plans for a new sports and community project unrelated to local need, the threat of overdevelopment and the provision of adequate drainage to protect homes from flood risks'.

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It added: "The initial response from APC to such issues is first to deny that there is a problem. If it will not go away then they kick it into the long grass."

But APC is not in favour of having a separate council and says it does listen to residents across the entire village.

Chairman Diane Bratt said: "West Adderbury is not distinct in any way whether that be geographically or politically. WARA is made up of five people on a committee with no constitution.

"They provide no consultation for the pubic but instead put out their own opinions and agendas to the people of West Adderbury.

"By their own figures they are still only a third of the minority of people in West Adderbury. They claim that we don't listen, but we always respond to any resident via email, letter, council meetings and surgeries."