Charlton Hayes Parish Campaign

24/06/2023

*PLAY SCHEME RESPONSE TO PTC PRESS RELEASE*

STATEMENT FROM CHARLTON HAYES CONSERVATIVE COUNCILLORS.
1. Earlier this year Cllrs Brian Hopkinson, Jo Buddharaju & Sanjay Shambhu lobbied with SGC leadership to award a one time payment to PTC to support its capital budget.
2. As a result, SGC duly awarded £100,000 to PTC. This ensured that PTC would be able to deliver services consistent to last year.
*3. This helped to maintain proper funding for Play Scheme among others as per agreed budget. PTC had budgeted to pay £5000 to the play scheme already this year, but suddenly they choose to underpay and burden the newly formed CHPC knowing that we have no scope for additional unforseen spending this year!*
4. It is just and fair that PTC has considered to fund the Play Scheme as we planned originally. There is no need to politicise it.
5. Charlton Hayes Parish did receive a partial funding request via PTC in the 11th hour. And it will work closely with Play Scheme and other organisations to deliver services.
6. In second Charlton Hayes Parish Council meeting on Tue 20th June 2023, the council have approved to nominate Cllrs Jack Groenewald and Dee Hasan to Joint Youth Working Group.
7. CHPC is a new council and we will work with all stakeholders to setup and deliver services in the best interests of our residents.
8. It should also be noted that Charlton Hayes residents has been paying over £300k to PTC year on year for nearly no services to people of Charlton Hayes.
9. PTC was working with Play Scheme for months, whereas when Charlton Hayes budget was reviewed in May, this request was not sent in May when we have set our CHPC Budget for this year.
10. CHPC is a new council and it has been successful in reducing taxes to every household by c£100 this year. We will request Play Scheme to engage with us early on so that we can offer our support.
11. PTC has been unnecessarily allowing its resources to be used for smear campaign against Charlton Hayes. We are disappointed to see this behaviour and hope they stop it and start working collaboratively with CHPC.

We urge our Charlton Hayes residents to attend the CHPC meetings in person or online and see for themselves and contribute to make Charlton Hayes and surrounding a great place to live and work.

Charlton Hayes Parish Conservative Councillors:
Cllr. Jo Oyekoya, Cllr. Roberto Cialfi, Cllr. Jack Groenewald, Cllr. Dee Hasan, Cllr. Jo Buddharaju & Cllr. Sanjay Shambhu

07/01/2022

Dear all,

Many thanks to all of you who participated in the Charlton Hayes Parish Campaign and in the SGC official consultation for or against. The consultation closes in under 2 hours, and we now know both sides have done their best they could. It has been a difficult issue for many of us, and I am especially grateful to a large number of residents who sent personal messages and expressed solidarity.

As you know Jo Buddharaju, Cllr Brian Hopkinson and I have campaigned for Charlton Hayes parish for many years. We can assure you that if the result is in favour, we will work tirelessly and constructively to deliver on pledges i.e. reducing precept and start delivering services. However, if the outcome is against, we will gracefully accept people’s verdict.

Please see below an article written by the leader of South Glos Council Toby Savage about creation of new parishes in two areas of South Gloucestershire. It provides some insightful context.

A close knowledge of the needs of their communities. The ability to act on issues quickly. The opportunity to deliver value for money and improve the local facilities that matter to people.

05/01/2022

Make sure your voices are heard on the creation of a brand-new Parish for Charlton Hayes before the public consultation closes tomorrow.

As your local Councillors, we have spent the past three years campaigning for Charlton Hayes to be recognised as an independent community and be granted its own parish. It has been great to see the level of support this has received and are grateful to the hundreds of residents who have backed these proposals by signing our petition. With the consultation closing at 11.59pm on Friday, there is still a chance to contribute.

Our goal throughout this campaign has been to ensure local residents get value for money in the services they receive and, in order to give residents a better understanding of this, we wanted to share an example of what the budget for a new Parish Council could look like, not only reducing the parish precept residents pay by more than 70% but will help us focus on local matters and help keep our public spaces tidy with the employment of a full-time litter picker.

To find out more, please visit: https://sanjayshambhu.com/2022/01/05/charlton-and-cribbs-conservatives-team-push-for-70-council-tax-precept-reduction-for-charlton-hayes-residents-as-consultation-nears-an-end/

21/10/2021

08/04/2021

We are pleased to annnouce that the first hurdle in setting up the Charlton Hayes Parish has been cleared at South Gloucestershire Council.

Please find here a news coverage by BristolPost.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/community-near-bristol-seeks-split-5273499

Campaigners want Charlton Hayes to have its own parish council, separate from Patchway Town Council

18/03/2021

LOCAL CONSERVATIVES CALL FOR NEW PARISH COUNCIL FOR CHARLTON HAYES TO CUT TAX BILLS

Calls for the Charlton Hayes community to set up its own Parish Council have been made by local Conservatives.

Having campaigned for the growing community to be allowed to form its own Parish Council prior to the Local Election in 2019, Cllrs Sanjay Shambhu, Jo Buddharaju and Brian Hopkinson have made the issue one of their top priorities, and at today’s Cabinet meeting called for South Gloucestershire Council to conduct a Community Governance Review, which would enable an investigation into changing the parish boundaries to take place.

Currently Charlton Hayes residents are charged twice for services, both to the developer in the form of a maintenance fee, and to Patchway Town Council in the form of a precept on council tax bills – the second highest in South Gloucestershire at £183 for a Band D property. The Town Council’s precept provides little to no services to residents due to streets and public spaces still being the responsibility of the developer’s management company.

The campaign to deliver a new Parish Council would seek to ensure Charlton Hayes residents pay a much lower precept and give them their freedom to make decisions for their own community. This has already been achieved for neighbouring Stoke Lodge and the Common who established themselves as a new parish following a campaign by Cllr Hopkinson and now pay around £100 less a year for their precept for a Band D property.

During today’s meeting of Cabinet, Cllr Sanjay Shambhu submitted the paper and digital petitions and called on the Council’s Conservative Administration to consider its commitment to not just deliver new housing but to fostering brand new communities and begin the review process which would aim to create the new parish in time for the 2023 Local Elections.

Cllr Sanjay Shambhu, said: “I am pleased to have raised our campaign to the Cabinet today and for the positive response it received. Charlton Hayes is continuing to grow and flourish, and is quickly discovering its own sense of identity. As such, it is important that we do what we can to support the development of our community and enable them to have a stronger voice in local matters. I want to thank everyone who has supported this campaign to date and to everyone who has signed our petition.”

Fellow Conservative Councillors for Charlton Hayes, Cllrs Brian Hopkinson and Jo Buddharaju said: “Not only would a new Parish give residents of Charlton Hayes more of a say in how they would govern themselves and result in a sizeable council tax cut, it would free them from Patchway Town Council, whose poor track record under past Labour leadership of financial mismanagement has done very little to benefit residents in this new community.”

03/02/2020

Friends,
We now have petition ready for signatures. Please download it from the link below and drop the signed petition to any of the drop-in addresses or send us via email. All details are on the petition.

Download petition here:

02/02/2020