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Parish hits back at councillor's criticism
MEMBERS of Grove Parish Council have been branded an "embarrassment to themselves" by a district councillor.
James McGee, 21, the Vale of White Horse District Council's youngest elected representative, last week accused Grove Parish Council of failing to keep villagers updated on plans for a large-scale housing development on their doorstep. About 2,500 homes could be built on the old airfield site, but residents are worried about the potential flood risk.
The parish council chairman, Frank Parnell, admitted his fellow members were not professional communicators, but believed residents had been kept in touch.
Mr McGee accused some parish councillors of failing to appreciate the problems for Grove if the drainage issue was not managed properly. The Tory said it was the parish council's job to keep electors informed about the development as best it could.
He said: "The community should be involved with everything that is going on. I have lived here ten years and I have seen nothing from the parish council. It is only from being on the district council that I know what's going on.
"People need to be aware of the issues facing the village."
Mr McGee, who is also Oxfordshire's youngest funeral director, caused the stir in February, when a letter appeared in the Wantage and Grove Review.
In it, he questioned some of the long-standing councillors' ability to represent the community because of their lack of knowledge of the flood risk. He said: "I printed the letter because after a parish council meeting in January, the public were asking questions of the parish council which they could not answer.
"They said the public have the opportunity to read the council minutes on the website but no one wants to do that."
Last week, parish councillors, at their full council meeting, accused Mr McGee of criticising their integrity. Mr McGee said: "They resorted to playground politics to intimidate me. It seems they have been embarrassed by me and there was a threat implied to take me to the Standards Committee. They are an embarrassment to themselves."
Mr Parnell said a meeting had been requested with Mr McGee, but he had failed to attend. He said: "We were concerned about the tone of the letter, rather than the content, and there were some slight inaccuracies.
"We wanted to sort it all out at an informal meeting."
Mr Parnell said information about the development had been available to villagers at every public council meeting since 2002, and articles had been printed in the parish newsletters.
He said: "The only valid point he made is that we are not as good as communicating as we could be.
"But we are not professional communicators, we are all doing this in our own time. We recognise it's something we need to work on and we are working on it.
"I just hope that's the end of it. We have both aired our views. We just want to draw a line under it now. We need to work together for the future of Grove."
Developer Persimmon Homes has remained tight-lipped over its plans to manage the drainage issue. It is due to submit development plans to the district planning authority in September.
12:36pm Tuesday 29th April 2008
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