STOP! Save These Oxfordshire Parishes!

We are no longer in the Western Corridor Sub-Region! This completely unexpected development is thanks to a vote on March 1st at the Regional Assembly. SODC Leader Councillor Ann Ducker put forward a motion for our removal. This was in spite of SEERA fears that taking the seven parishes (and part of Sonning Common) out of the Western Corridor would 'open the floodgates' to pressure for similar boundary changes elsewhere. The vote went ahead nonetheless and was won 44 votes to 29, on the basis that there was no significant housing development currently scheduled for the area and that it did not therefore fit with being in a development sub-region. SEERA's boundary for the Western Corridor will not include any part of Oxfordshire. Our thanks to Cllr Ducker and to all the others who have been working so hard for this change.

There are full details in a press release on the SODC website, which also confirms that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (John Prescott) still has a potential veto on the proposal: so vigilance will be vital, although the fact that the area was not due to yield any housing development may well be significant. Meanwhile it has been confirmed that the STOP! camapign will stand down with a recommendation that parish polls not go ahead.