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Planning approval to rebuild the wall of the Mallories property on Church street to erect two small cottages has been granted by Cherwell District Council. The wall is to be taken down stone by stone to enable new foots to be put in and then all the old stone is to be reused and assembled in the same order so as to go some way to preserve the look and feel of the current wall.

The Parish Council agreed at the last meeting, that because of the interest shown  by the community in this application, that the details of the approval would be posted onto the website for all to read. However, rather than scan in the whole document, if you follow the detailed instructions below you will be able to view the full report on the District website very easily.

Planning Application no 17/01710/F – Removal of condition 7 (plan of wall, method of joining stonework) of 16/02631/F | Plot 2 Mallories Cherry Street Stratton Audley

Details of applications are available to view through the Councils Online Planning Service, just enter the following into your internet browser:

http://www.publicaccess.cherwell.gov.uk/online-applications

This should take you through to the planning page of Cherwell Council. Copy and paste the Planning Application no: 17/01710/F into the box where it says Enter a key word

Click and this will take you through to the Planning Application summary page and you will notice a number of sub folders across the page and you should click on Documents.

This will bring up another page which has in the box the words View Associated Documents. Click on this and you will arrive at the page with all the relevant reports.

Click on the left hand side of any one of them. At the top of the list is the latest document but it is very important to click on the blue highlighted number on the left of the page to open the actual report.

If these instructions don’t work for you then you can try the Cherwell District Council Instructions on how to use the Public Access service to view, comment on and keep track of applications which  can be found at: http://www.cherwell.gov.uk/viewplanningapp

Stratton Audley is to become part of East Oxfordshire and in the future our parliamentary representative will be the MP for Henley-on-Thames, not Banbury MP Victoria Prentis.  As a result we will have even less connection with Bicester which must be of some concern.

Everyone is encouraged to have their say and decide whether or not they wish to object to this very significant change.

See the latest Government proposals by clicking on this link:

https://www.bce2018.org.uk/node/6488?postcode=OX279AT 

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The proposal  that the Parish Council was consulted on in December 2016 is still going ahead. See below for Parish Council submission

Stratton Audley Parish Council response to Boundary Commission consultation

Stratton Audley Parish Council objects most strongly to the proposed boundary changes, which would see Stratton Audley – a village immediately adjacent to Bicester, and whose future is inextricably tied to that of the rapidly-growing town – being represented by an MP whose South Oxfordshire constituency base is the town of Henley – some 35 miles away, in a different district council area, and difficult to reach by public transport.  This would shatter strong local ties and do a grave electoral disservice to the residents of Stratton Audley, who would effectively be robbed of proper local representation, because their MP would have little, if any, knowledge or understanding of the local problems that they face. The Parish is part of the Bicester hinterland. Bicester is a rapidly developing area, with a substantial amount of residential development planned, and is also likely to be significantly affected by the proposals to create a strategic road link between Oxford and Cambridge. The issues of Cherwell District, both strategic, and local planning will be alien to an MP whose constituency base is some 35 miles away.

The Parish Council has noted that this review is being undertaken using old and out of date data.  By using the old Cherwell district wards, which have been completely replaced by new larger wards (approximately three times the size of the old ones), the Boundary Commission is – amongst other things – failing to take into account the existence of developments that are part of Bicester, but which are being built on fields that used to be part of rural wards that were distinct from Bicester.   The Boundary Commission has a statutory remit to consider “local ties that would be broken by changes in constituencies” in its deliberations; and it acknowledges that it might propose splitting a district ward “where all the possible ‘whole ward’ options in an area would significantly cut across local ties”, which is the case for Stratton Audley and its relationship with Bicester where the residents have access to health facilities ( Community hospital and doctors’ surgeries) leisure facilities and major shopping outlets.

The Parish Council would also observe that the district has planned growth much faster than the national average, meaning that the Banbury & Bicester constituency – currently only 257 electors below the absolute upper limit – will be too large at the next review (the same is true for Witney, which currently has a margin of only 52 electors); • the whole-ward view will be unable to cope with the new, much larger, Cherwell district wards now in place. The above-national-average planned growth of Oxfordshire also means that, at the next review, it will no longer be possible to have constituencies that fall entirely within county boundaries: Oxfordshire is almost certain to need a new constituency – most of the current ones are near bursting point even now – but the growth is probably not fast enough to allow a new constituency that lies entirely within Oxfordshire, so it will need to be combined with areas from another county. Since it is clear that both the whole-ward and county-boundary approaches are no longer viable even in the short term, it is the Parish Council’s view that they should be abandoned now, rather than forcing villages with strong local ties to their nearby towns – and residents of new developments within those towns – to be incorrectly represented for five years due solely to the Boundary Commission’s continued use of an outdated and inappropriate methodology.

Finally the parish Council would wish to point out that the current proposals will actively harm democracy and parliamentary accountability for the electors in Stratton Audley.

December 5^th 2016

Below is  email correspondence with Scottish & Southern regarding recent power cuts in the village

Dear Mr Honsinger

Thank you for your patience whilst waiting for a reply to the question which you have asked regarding recent power supply issues.

I have now been provided with information which will hopefully allow me to answer your concerns.

It has been confirmed that the works done previously to install a strengthening loop in to the local network has had no relevance to the recent interruptions which have been experienced. The loop was installed on a different section of the network to where the most recent faults have been occurring.

The reason for the recent interruptions has been identified as a result of trees/branches that have been coming in to contact with our lines on the main network. At this time our Network Upgrade and tree cutting teams have no planned scheduled in place for the correction and maintenance of these areas which have been identified. This is something that the senior management will be addressing and we will be arranging for corrective works to be actioned at the earliest opportunity.

I would like to take the opportunity again to apologise to yourself and all the residents of Stratton Audley for the disruption which has been experienced. Please rest assured that we are committed to ensure we are offering as reliable a supply as possible.

If you have any further questions or queries that I may be able to help with then you can contact us on 0800 980 1395 or by replying to this email. I will monitor our systems to check for a response and if I do not hear from you within 28 days, I will assume the matter has already been resolved.

If you would like to view our complaint handling procedure please click on the link below.

Kind regards

Andy Boardman

Customer Relations

T: +44(0)800 980 1395

Internal: 34240

E:Andrew.boardman@sse.com

Walton Park, Walton Road, Cosham, PO6 1UJ

www.ssen.co.uk

If you would like to know more about our complaints handling
procedure, please click here

Dear Andy

Thank you for your email below and explanation therein but I think you are referencing the wrong incident as the power cut to which I was referring happened at 10.50pm in the evening and not during the afternoon.

However, regardless of this point of detail, I would like you to still address the wider issue of the frequency of minor power cuts (another one occurred sometime during last night, Friday 25^th and I know this because a  number of appliances in our house had to be reset again today.

Without wishing to repeat myself could you please answer the question in the second paragraph of my previous email as to whether a new loop was installed over the five day period when most of Stratton Audley was cut off from the grid and whether the new additional link is going to mean less power cuts this winter because on the evidence thus far I am concerned?

I hope you don’t think it unreasonable to seek fuller clarification since I am being asked this question frequently.

Many thanks

John Honsinger

From: Boardman, Andrew [mailto:andrew.boardman@sse.com] On Behalf Of CustomerComplaints
Sent: 25 August 2017 11:53
To: ‘john Honsinger’ <jhonsinger@btconnect.com>
Cc: ‘Cllr Ian Corkin’ <Ian.Corkin@Oxfordshire.gov.uk>; Barry Wood <cllr.barry.wood@cherwell-dc.gov.uk>; Anne Davies <strattonaudley.parishclerk@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: Scottish & Southern Electricity Power Cuts

Dear Mr Honsinger

I am writing further to my previous email advising I was investigating the interruption which had been experienced.

It has been confirmed to me that our engineers were called to attend the local area following reports received of customers without power. On arrival it was found that a cable on our main overhead network had brought a wire down. Repairs were completed at the time in order for power supplies to be restored. During the follow up for this, a section of line was identified as requiring attention where trees were in close proximity to our cables. It was felt that supplies needed to be isolated that afternoon to allow safe removal of branches to prevent further unplanned interruptions from occurring.

Contrary to popular belief, it remains the responsibility of any landowner to ensure that trees growing on their property are kept away from the overhead network which we operate. We only become involved when it is too late for preventative cutting to be completed without endangering those completing the works.

I hope that the above answers some of the questions which are being asked. If you need any further information then please do not hesitate to contact us again.

If you would like to view our complaint handling procedure please click on the link below.

Kind regards