Motocross track near Banbury was used at an 'unacceptably high' cost to everyone other than the landowner - Letters

The truth is that all the surrounding countryside businesses objected, with not a single one supporting the application.

In fact, motocross events have had a negative impact on local businesses. The owners and managers have written in to complain about the impact of the track on their livelihoods. The evidence is there, on the Cherwell District Council planning portal, in black and white.

The applicant landowner has clearly benefited financially from this vast commercial enterprise - but at an unacceptably high cost to everyone else and the landscape.

Thank heavens Cherwell councillors refused the retrospective application, 13-0. Your headline “sigh of relief” was spot on!

Mr S Woodcock, Hornton Parish Councillor

Spiceball

I was surprised and disappointed to learn that Spiceball management have changed the age threshold of a Senior Swimmers from 55 to 70 years old. This means a real terms price increase for this group of 80 per cent.

According to Spiceball, prices are set by the Cherwell District Council Wellbeing department which must be a joke. How is the wellbeing of the 55 to 70 year olds served by almost doubling the price of swimming to them? This age group are precisely the ones that should be encouraged to exercise and stay healthy so reducing their risk of requiring already stretched NHS/Hospital/GP services.

It’s hard not to see this as a cynical, money grabbing decision by CDC who after all, are elected to look after us, not put barriers in the way of those who wish to exercise.

Peter Gordon, Hanwell

Brexit

Carol Broom (The Crime of Brexit, Banbury Guardian 13 July, 2023) praises Jolyon Maugham KC for his persistent and successful efforts to expose the murkier aspects of English law.

I have not read the book referred to, but I have been aware of Mr Maugham’s work for some time and I too praise him for it.

Carol gives some detail of “the democratic failure of Brexit” unearthed and placed under a spotlight by Mr Maugham. It is indeed a litany of shady dealing, sharp practice and political chicanery.

What is interesting is that a lack of democratic good practice is now being raised.

The EU in succession to the EEC is not and never has been a democratic project. Belatedly a European Parliament was created.

But it is a parliament in name only. The policies of the EU, as with the EEC before it, are written into treaties binding under international law. To sign the treaty is to accept the policy, no democratic vote in the European Parliament can bring about effective change. To change policy the international treaties would have to be changed.

I agree with Carol that the UK’s parting from the EU did not conform to the highest standards of legal and political ethics. Heath’s government took this country into the EEC without a democratic mandate. Wilson held a referendum, but by then we were a member, and it was a lot easier to manipulate a population to maintain the status quo. The whole repertoire – dark hints of dire consequences, carrot and stick – was deployed.

Political dirty tricks did not start with Boris Johnson.

Malcolm Parker, Banbury.