Vote NO tomorrow

This is our chance to make our voices heard.  Please vote between 4pm and 9pm at your local polling station, and remind family and friends to do the same.  (No photo ID is required and Polling Cards have not been issued).

Oxford United and OxVox will do everything they can to mobilise their Kidlington fanbase. It’s crucial we do the same.  Please offer assistance if you can to anyone who may struggle to get to the polling station.

 We’re less than impressed with OUFC’s recently-published ‘Vision Statement’. As part of their ‘Community Pledge’, apparently the Club are going to work in partnership with all our community organisations, schools, local churches, make sure we’re ‘high priority’ for jobs (no guarantees mind) and let us use a community space on a ‘preferential basis’ (not free then). We’re also told that the Club will help ‘source potential funding’ for a pitch and sports facility strategy.

• What does ‘work in partnership’ actually mean – sounds like tokenism to us.
• They would have to put their hands in their pockets anyway as developer contributions to build a stadium on our Green Belt – what are they giving OVER AND ABOVE that? Very little it seems.
• Hasn’t OUFC been working in partnership with local football clubs for years anyway?
• Do we only get partnership benefits if OUFC are based in Kidlington? We thought they were a county-wide club…
• Why are they only promising to help us ‘source potential funding’? We don’t need help filling in application forms.

IN SHORT, DON’T BE FOOLED!

THIS 'VISION' DOESN’T AMOUNT TO MUCH.

DO WE WANT OUR COMMUNITY DOMINATED BY A FOOTBALL CLUB AND DEPENDENT ON HANDOUTS?

Kidlington can be rightfully proud of its reputation as a family-friendly place with lots to offer its young people. We’re tired (and frankly, insulted) by the criticisms levelled by those who want a stadium that we need it because there’s nothing for kids to do. 

How many villages have 3 football clubs, a cricket, rugby and running club, a sports centre and swimming pool with clubs and lessons, a highly popular Scout group (with its own boat base) and Guiding organisation, badminton and tennis courts, many local churches with Sunday Schools, dance academy and schools, martial arts clubs and a netball club, a junior parkrun and much more?  These activities are thanks to the community we already have – the parents and volunteers who step up and train as coaches and leaders to enable this wealth of activities for our young people. Our Gala Days, Firework displays and Christmas Lights Switch-On events are a real highlight for our young people.

The facilities may not be perfect but there are other ways to fund improvements which don’t come with strings and significant negative aspects attached. 4,400 houses are due to be built in our local area in the next couple of years. This will mean significant financial contributions from developers. Grant funding can also be explored as an avenue to fund improvements.

Last but not least, THANK YOU to the amazing group of volunteers who helped to do not one but two leaflets drops to the vast majority of Kidlington over the last couple of weeks. A very impressive achievement.

We stand by our decision that calling for the Parish Poll was the right thing to do (see more https://www.friendsofstratfieldbrake.org/kpcagm30mar23/). We remain baffled why Oxfordshire County Council has run public consultations for things like improvements to Kidlington Roundabout, and yet, hasn’t EVER written to local residents here (or in Gosford & Water Eaton and North Oxford) about this potential major development in our village. This is a glaring omission. Even more so, given that 2 years ago, following a lengthy legal battle about the addition of 4,400 to the area for ‘Oxford’s Unmet Housing Need’, the Planning Inspector decided the Triangle and Stratfield Brake should remain as a green barrier.  A football stadium and 200 bed hotel should not be built on the Green Belt.

Whatever tomorrow’s result, we believe local residents should have been consulted at the outset. Many local communities in North Oxford, Gosford and Water Eaton and surrounding areas, must also be given the opportunity to have their say in a secure process.

Please call 07917 739 846 if you have any queries.

Vote NO!

Save the Gap

Stop the Stadium