Wiltshire Council is currently engaged in a consultation with the Local Government Boundary Commission, and proposed changes will affect Froxfield.
Put simply, Wiltshire County is further broken into ‘divisions’ and we are currently included in Ramsbury and Aldbourne and represented at the council by James Sheppard. Our village interests are also represented by Parish Councillors at the Marlborough Area Board and the Marlborough Community Area Transport Group.
However, the Boundary Commission is proposing that Froxfield Parish should now be aligned with those of Bedwyn and Burbage and included in the newly-named Pewsey Vale East division.
This would have a significant impact on the way Froxfield is represented both at the local level and at Wiltshire County. We would have a new Councillor and be incorporated into the Pewsey Area Board and Pewsey CATG.
This link: https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/node/14518 leads to an interactive map showing the existing boundary — where Froxfield has links to the villages north of the A4 — and overlays proposed new boundary, which would see Froxfield linked with The Bedwyns to become part of the Pewsey Vale East district.
Councillor James Sheppard attended the meeting of the Froxfield Parish Council on Monday night (last night) and reported that he was unhappy with this situation and did not want to ‘lose’ Froxfield from his remit. He explained that the new division boundaries are intended to ‘even out’ the numbers of people represented by each councillor. However, they take no account of the historic connections of the areas concerned.
Most significantly, the new boundary division would mean that Froxfield would no longer have its Parochial and Local Authority boundaries in sync. We are in the Diocese of Salisbury, as part of the Whitton Benefice which also includes Ramsbury, Axford, Chilton Foliat, Baydon and Aldbourne, and with this proposed move, we would lose our historical county administrative links to these and the other northern villages.
Furthermore, Froxfield Parish Council has been working for a number of years with the Marlborough CATG to achieve a better design of the A4 through the village to reduce speeding. Currently, we are on the CATG priority list for action and surveys of the road at the village entrances as well as the area in the centre at the junction of Brewhouse Hill have been completed. All this progress might well be jeopardised by a move to a new area, governed by new priorities and with different budget restraints.
James Sheppard revealed that Wiltshire Council has a special meeting on March 25th where councillors will dedicate the entire meeting to discussing and debating the proposed division changes.
Froxfield Parish Council will object to the change of boundaries in the strongest terms. However, individual submissions can also be made and will have an impact on the decision-making process.
We would encourage all Froxfield residents to follow the link: https://consultation.lgbce.org.uk/node/14518 to view the interactive map and then follow the link to make their objections to the boundary changes.
Alternatively, email directly to reviews@lgbce.org.uk
Correspondence relating to the review – and consultation responses can be addressed to:
Review Officer (Wiltshire)
Local Government Boundary Commission for England 1st Floor, Windsor House,
50 Victoria Street,
London,
SW1H 0TL
Email: reviews@lgbce.org.uk
Although we have until April 15th to submit our thoughts on the changes — doing so in advance of March 25th will definitely help our case when this is debated at the Wiltshire County Council.
Vanya Body
Froxfield Vice Chair
The Marlborough Area Board currently covers the parishes of Aldbourne, Avebury, Baydon, Berwick Bassett, Broad Hinton, Chilton Foliat, East Kennett, Froxfield, Fyfield, Marlborough, Mildenhall, Ogbourne St. Andrew, Ogbourne St. George, Preshute, Ramsbury, Savernake, West Overton, Winterbourne Bassett and Winterbourne Monkton.
The Pewsey Area Board currently covers the parishes of Alton, Beechingstoke, Burbage, Buttermere, Charlton and Wilsford, Chirton and Connock, Easton, Grafton, Great Bedwyn, Ham, Little Bedwyn, Manningford, Marden, Milton Lilbourne, North Newnton, Patney, Pewsey, Rushall, Shalbourne, Stanton St Bernard, Upavon, Wilcot, Huish and Oare, Woodborough and Wootton Rivers.
