The Movement Working Group

Mon 23 Mar 2015, 19:22

Sounding a gentle note of caution...

I love this little town, and its people, to bits. I feel both lucky and proud to live here, and privileged to be able to make a modest contribution to town life. There is (almost) nothing that I don't like about Charlbury.

But the "almost" is because of one particular thing, which is our collective tendency to shoot down well-intentioned ideas at the first opportunity without giving them a hearing. If I had a pound for the number of times I've heard the phrase "tried that once, didn't work", I'd be able to buy the Bull. Ok, not quite (but I could certainly buy a meal at the Bull). If we let that rule our actions, we wouldn't have a Co-op that opens on Sundays (who remembers the short trial in the old Sheep Street Co-op?), a new community centre, a Walkers are Welcome initiative, or many others.

The Neighbourhood Forum and its subgroups are very early in their infancy. Shooting down "what is proposed" before anything has even informally been "proposed", or writing a 420-word rebuttal to a 250-word floating of possibilities, will do more than anything else to stifle debate and dishearten those who are giving up their time. Please - do give this fledgling initiative a chance.

On the accountability of the Neighbourhood Forum: as Liz has said, it was set up at the instigation of the Town Council and reports back to them. The Town Council is formally the responsible body (see the WODC website: "Charlbury Town Council is the qualifying body responsible for the development of a Neighbourhood Plan for the Parish of Charlbury"). And yes, a referendum is required if and when a Neighbourhood Plan is eventually produced.

Neighbourhood Plans are a creature of the present Government (DCLG) and are increasingly becoming expected of small towns - Chipping Norton and Thame both have them. Oxfordshire County Council's new Local Transport Plan, for example, expressly doesn't specify a transport policy for rural areas but says that OCC expects transport proposals to be brought forward by local communities through Neighbourhood Plans.

In another world, the Town Council could have taken on the task of town development over the past 20 years. Since the Town Appraisal of 1997, it seems to me that Charlbury Town Council has largely concentrated on the statutory, maintenance and reactive aspects of its role rather than developing a long-term strategy or engaging in advocacy - though with some very valuable exceptions (e.g. affordable housing). As someone elected to the council only at the last election my instincts are towards a more strategy-based approach, but we are where we are and I'm only one of 12! The Neighbourhood Forum is an attempt to address this; I hope that it succeeds and is able to win the favour of the town.