A TINY parish has won a battle to stop itself from being swallowed up by Oxfordshire's biggest village.

Kidlington parish councillors voted to leave its neighbour alone after residents in Gosford and Water Eaton kicked up a fuss about a future merger.

A letter from Gosford eventually convinced them it would not be worth going ahead with their submission to Cherwell District Council's boundary review if there was so much opposition. They were originally unanimous about the proposal, but backed down at a council meeting on Thursday .

Ann Watson, the chairman of Gosford and Water Eaton Parish Council, who recently called for a truce, said: "I'm delighted. It got a bit out of hand, I think.

"It was just unfortunate the way it was done. It was just a surprise and people didn't seem to want to join up with Kidlington."

Gosford's clerk Carl Smith was pleased that the councillors' decision would now allow them to liaise closely on a £1m lottery bid for a recreation ground at Stratfield Brake. They also hope it will help them find answers to the Easter floods, which affected about 100 people in Kidlington. He said: "We can work on things that are more constructive. We asked for a ceasefire so that we could get on with things. We welcome the decision as a move to go forwards."

The professional engineer has drafted a report suggesting that a giant earth mound dug out near Richard Branson's house in Mill End, Kidlington, to build the tycoon's lake, might have been responsible for some of the flooding.

Dave Green, the chairman of Kidlington Parish Council when the proposal was submitted, still believes a merger would be in the best interests of all local residents.

He said: "We need to work together on a number of vital issues and, although a merger would eventually unite the two parishes, the process of doing so would be too damaging in the short term."

Trish Redpath, the clerk to Kidlington Parish Council, said: "We really only did this to chuck it into the court of Cherwell for them to decide whether there was any case.

"We didn't expect Gosford to jump up and down and shout like they did. The councillors were saying that if it was going to cause that amount of upset to Gosford it wasn't something they wanted to force."

She added that in the future they might try and set up a public debate between the two parish councils.

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