Castle Quay 'disaster' will impact on services for years to come - Letters to the Editor

I read with interest the full page report concerning the financial disaster of the investment of Castle Quay and Castle Quay 2 by Cherwell District Council.

I predicted this in a letter to the Banbury Guardian in 2018 and now the chickens have come home to roost!

This disaster will inevitably impact on the provision of services for years to come.

The excuse given is that they were acting on so called expert financial advice but consultants charge large fees but are seldom brought to account when they make mistakes.

Why did consultants advise on the building of the original Spiceball Swimming Pool complex where it was at obvious risk of flooding?

It was flooded and then a new pool etc had to be built on safe higher ground but at a further cost of several hundred thousand pounds.

In 2007 Cropredy school was being enlarged and I noticed that a new classroom was being built causing a pinch point in the adjacent stream that I feared would cause the school and schoolhouse to be at risk of flooding.

I visited the school to register my concerns and also contacted the overseeing consultants but I was ignored.

Within a few weeks just as I had predicted the new build and schoolhouse were flooded and the residents there had to live in a caravan for months.

Much remedial work including partial demolition of the new build had to be undertaken at great extra cost but I am not aware that the consultants were penalised for their errors.

Brian Cannon, Great Bourton.

I support the use of brownfield sites for housing needs over engulfing rural villages and destroying the countryside, but the Marlborough Road site is not brownfield – by definition, idle or abandoned – but quite the opposite. It provides an essential need, in exactly the right place.

I have a foot condition which means I can only walk short distances and the NCP Marlborough Road car park provides easy access to my dentist, optician, hairdresser and some basic shops along the High Street.

It is one of the few areas of Banbury that still provides all these essential services – unlike Castle Quay.

These services are of no account to the developers, who seem to think the vitality of the town will be restored by a residential community, in the evenings.

This is nonsense. Banbury is a lifeless place because the shops that brought people into the town, are now gone and if essential car parks are lost to those already struggling to visit businesses in the town centre, they will be gone too.

Margaret Bulleyment, Steeple Aston

Why is there no legislation to date insisting that every planning application for warehousing and distribution hubs; new factories and industrial estates, should have solar panels fitted as standard to their vast roof areas? This could be phased in also for existing buildings along the ‘white corridors’. How much more environmentally and aesthetically friendly this would be, rather than covering vast acreages of farm land, rendering useless valuable food productive areas and creating huge ‘lakes’ of reflective panels in the countryside.

I think Greatworth and neighbouring villages have suffered enough!

Chris Wells, Middleton Cheney.

"The lunatics are running the asylum: official.”

The Banbury Guardian front page story featuring the proposed seemingly derelict new building which will face the town’s library in Marlborough Road has finally convinced me that developers and their architects are determined to recreate the bombed-out slums so evident at the end of World War 2.

I believe Sir John Betjeman’s 1937 poem "Come, friendly bombs, and fall on…” (I leave your readers to complete an apposite quote.)

Keith Bennett. Increasingly despairing Banbury resident for 75 years.

With regard to the local elections on May 4 and the compulsory photographic identification to enable a democratic right to vote, after 55 years of being on this planet, it’s an insult and an attack on the very principles of democracy to demand that we, the electorate, prove our entitlement to vote.

Needless to say, I’ll not be forced to prove who I am, and I’ll not be giving my consent to any fake democracy statements regarding ANY elections held that portray consent from the electorate.

Richard Respect, by email.

I am writing to correct information on 15-minute zones. The 15-minute city idea is a concept which says everyone should be able to access essential services and facilities within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from their home.

It does not mean everyone must walk or ride a bike, or that cars are prohibited.

It also does not mean you are not allowed to stray more than 15 minutes from your home.

Unfortunately, these are the ideas online conspiracy theorists are pushing.

The reality is people with limited mobility will find it easier to live their lives as services will become closer and it would not be necessary to have a car to access them.

Public transport is also important within the 15-minute concept as the central idea is to reduce the need to have private cars.

Bryan Hopkins, by email.

Age UK and our new friends, the Wombles, are helping to spread the message of sustainability and asking the people of Banbury to take part by donating their unwanted items to the Age UK Banbury shop.

The Wombles are working with the charity throughout the year as they celebrate their 50th anniversary. Together we hope to inspire people to adopt positive (Womble-style) behaviour, whether that’s by recycling their unwanted items and donating them to Age UK, or by reusing pre-loved items purchased in the charity’s shops.

The Age UK Banbury shop urgently needs good quality donations such as clothing and accessories, gifts, toys, household items and shoes, all of which are then sold on to be loved again. Age UK shops raise funds to support vital services for older people, including the charity’s free and confidential national Advice Line and Telephone Friendship Services.

So please join us and The Wombles, and donate your unwanted items. Not only will you be doing your bit for the environment, you’ll also be helping a great cause!

James Tucker, Shop Manager, Age UK Banbury.