B A N B U R Y C I V I C S O C I E T Y

Wishing all our members and supporters,old and new

A Very Merry Christmasand a Happy New Year

2015 has been aninteresting year. Cherwell

Council has finally managed toadopt a Local Plan. This didn’t giveus everything we wanted (most

notably a South-to-East link road),but hopefully it will mean an end tospeculative, unplanned development.

A major highlight for our Society wasthe unveiling of a blue plaque at 84 HighStreet, commemorating Banbury as the'Birthplace of the World RailwayHeritage Movement'. Another was ourcoach trip to historic Bridgnorth and the

Severn Valley Railway, including a ridebehind the now world-famous ‘Tornado’in carriages built in the 1930s.

The year has also seen the long-anticipated opening of Banbury's answerto Bicester Village, the Gateway retail park, with the attendant news-columninches about road-rage, lack of parkingspace and gridlock at the eastern end ofHennef Way. With Waitrose nowconsented at the western end of HennefWay, bringing with it a 220-space carpark accessed from Southam Road and aplanned footfall to rival Staples, ToppsTiles, Homebase and B&Q combined, it

looks like getting aroundBanbury isn’t going toget any easier for awhile… But, at least wenow have six new placesto buy clothes and wecan soon look forwardto being able tobuy threedifferent varieties ofhand-tufted quinoa anda range of organicMongolian equine dairyproducts… If we cannegotiate the localtraffic.

With 7,500 new homesspringing up, we lookforward to welcomingplenty of new membersto the Society, as the newresidents seek to maketheir new home-town abetter place to live and

relax in, and then find that they can’teasily get to the shops, to work or to thestation... With an announcement hopedfor on Castle Quay 2 in 2016, we'llcontinue to work to promote out historicOld Town to residents old and new, andto the wider world. With the creation ofboth Banbury Presents and VisitBanbury, we have fresh new allies in thismission.

Campaigns for the protection of oldBanbury have continued in 2015, withcampaigns to save the old Cherwell IronWorks steam traction-engine factory(a.k.a. Burgess, Lower Cherwell Street),the old Grand cinema on Broad Street(a.k.a. ‘Wonder Lounge’) and BanburyNorth Signal Box. Tragically, thedemolition of J&M Alcock & Sons‘Alcock’s Yard’ on Castle Street wasconsented at the end of November,spelling the likely demise of Banbury'slast 'Canal Age' factory. Watch this spacefor (hopefully) some good news on someof these campaigns in the coming year.

2015 hasn’t been a great year fornewsletters (sorry)! Hopefully you’vemanaged to keep in touch with whatwe’ve been doing or saying via the localmedia. I can report that the Society is ingood heart, with membership up againon previous years. We have had anincreased public profile, taking the standto the Banbury & District Show and theTown Mayor’s Hobby Horse Day, in addition to Canal Day. As ever, we coulduse more active members, so we can

both do more, and report it back to ourmembership..!

I extend my deepest thanks to you, ourmembers, for your ongoing support, andto the members of our Exec and Admincommittees for all their hard work overthe last year.

Happy Christmas to you all.

If anyone is looking for a new year’sresolution, please do consider taking amore active role in what we do.

Do feel free to contact myself (detailsbelow) if you are able to help, or if thereare issues you'd like us to address.

Yours faithfully

Rob(Rob Kinchin-Smith, Chairman, 07818091862,rob.kinchinsmith@btinternet.com )