Appendix 2 Community Governance Review Final recommendations - Fleet Marston Parish The issue for consideration To consider the abolition of Fleet Marston Parish as the Parish Meeting is inactive and the amalgamation of the area in to Waddesdon Parish. Representations received in response to initial consultation Name & address Summary of response Jonathan Dawes As a major land owner in the Parish the company is Planning Executive totally opposed to the idea. Barwood Land & Estates Ltd If the proposal does go ahead they suggest Northampton amalgamation with Quarrendon is more appropriate. Mr J A Hunter Totally opposed to change. Principally for historical Fleet Marston Farm reasons. Also that the physical proximity to both Bicester Road Berryfields and Aylesbury means they look to these Fleet Marston areas for services and not to Waddesdon. Aylesbury If the proposal does go ahead they suggest HP18 0PZ amalgamation with Quarrendon is more appropriate. Offers his services in connection with the Parish Meeting if Fleet Marston Parish is to be retained. Quainton Parish Council Recommend Fleet Marston be included within Waddesdon Parish. Waddesdon Parish Council The council is of the opinion that this merger can only be to the benefit of residents of Fleet Marston for the following reasons: • They will cease to become disenfranchised at this level of government. • They will have the opportunity to voice any concerns on matters affecting them in their own forum.(At the September meeting of this Council virtually all the residents of Fleet Marston attended to voice their concerns as to the planning proposals for Fleet Marston farm.). • They will avoid planning delays that have occurred in the past when their planning applications fall outside the cycle of meetings of this council. • Attention can be brought to bear on their detailed problems. • Their children will no longer be excluded form events as they do not live in the parish of Waddesdon. Appendix 2 (Continued) Representations received in response to consultation on the draft recommendation: To abolish the Parish of Fleet Marston and amalgamate the area in to Waddesdon Parish. Name & address Summary of response Waddesdon Parish Council Reaffirm their support for the proposal for the reasons they initially outlined (see above). Jonathan Dawes Reaffirmed the company’s opposition to the proposal for Planning Executive the following reasons: Barwood Land & Estates Ltd • Fleet Marston has long been a place and a parish Northampton with a long history of settlements. • They do not agree that the fit of Fleet Marston with Waddesdon has a more compelling logic due to their rural nature than the amalgamation of the parish with Quarrendon Parish. • The Berryfields scheme extends the built edge of Aylesbury to the Parish boundary of Fleet Marston. • The physical proximity and functional relationship for local services will be the urban centres of Berryfields and Aylesbury to the east , not Waddesdon to the west. • Fleet Marston will be intrinsically linked with Berryfields and Aylesbury such that it will have strong urban and suburban influences exerted over it, and will not share the same rural characteristics of Waddesdon. • The proposed route of HS2 further emphasises the separation of Fleet Marston from Waddesdon and serves to reinforce Fleet Marston’s links and relationships with Berryfields and Aylesbury. Mr J Meehan Acknowledges the Parish is disenfranchised by being out 5 Putlowes Drive on its own and that the majority of residents seem to be Fleet Marston happy as they are. HP18 0PX Agrees that amalgamation with Waddesdon would be preferable to Quarrendon but points out Waddesdon is an urban area. States the area has everything to lose by the amalgamation, especially financially. Also that Fleet Marston would have little or no voice in decisions made by Waddesdon Parish and that they would be subsidising them. Regards the extra Council Tax as extortionate. Appendix 2 (Continued) Final recommendation To abolish the Parish of Fleet Marston and amalgamate the area in to Waddesdon Parish. Issues considered The Parish Meeting is inactive and has been for many years. The proposal to abolish the Parish did not proceed at the 2005 Parish Review as a consequence of representations made at that time by residents of Fleet Marston, including an offer from Mr & Mrs Hunter to help re-establish the Parish Meeting and to act as correspondent. In the intervening period, however, the Parish Meeting has remained inactive. During the current review residents have been sent two letters and no one has come forward and offered to act as Parish Correspondent. Residents of Fleet Marston were advised that post the proposed amalgamation with Waddesdon they will have included in their Council Tax bills a parish precept which for 2010/11 would have been £117.26 for a Council Tax Band D property. Only one reply objecting to this was received. While accepting the close proximity of Fleet Marston to the planned Berryfields development the two are considered inherently different in nature. The more urban nature of Berryfields with the proposed development of 3,000 properties will create its own community which will be very different to the rural hamlet of Fleet Marston containing only 16 properties. The current boundary of Fleet Marston with Quarrendon Parish and the Berryfields development utilises, in part, the existing railway line and thus reinforces the separation of Fleet Marston from the developed/to be developed urban edge of Aylesbury. The proposed route of HS2 crosses both Waddesdon & Fleet Marston Parishes and many other parishes in the Vale. It is not felt that this strengthens the case for amalgamating Fleet Marston with Quarrendon Parish. Reasons for final recommendations The residents of Fleet Marston will be better represented if they are in an active Parish. Waddesdon Parish and Fleet Marston are both rural in nature and have similar interests. Residents have looked to Waddesdon Parish Council to represent their interests in the past. Electoral consequences None. Fleet Marston and Waddesdon are both within the same District Ward, Grendon Underwood County Division and the Buckingham Parliamentary constituency. .