Hampton Parish Boundary Change - It’s happened

As many of you are aware, that part of the village east of the canal was always situated within the Parish of Hampton in Arden, while the remaining parts west  were ‘unparished’. The boundaries were drawn up long before the settlement of Catherine de Barnes grew into the village it is today. We felt the separation between the parished and unparished areas was outdated and meant that those living in the areas did so under separate and different scenarios. A Parish Council is the first tier of local Government and as such truly represents the community and environment. It also has Statutory rights and responsibilities.

Back in 2016 it was felt by the Committee that the best way forward to bring the village together and to endeavour to protect our community and have more control over its future, was to seek the security of being part of the existing Hampton Parish. At the Residents’ Association AGM in February 2017 we  secured the agreement of the majority of those attending to embark on the journey of seeking incorporation into Hampton Parish and subsequently approached Hampton Parish Council  who agreed to initiate the project. At that time the Parish Council consisted of 8 Parish Councillors one of whom, Dave Cuthbert, represented the area of Catherine de Barnes currently situated in the Parish as it looks today. The Parish Council set up a working group which worked with SMBC to initiate the process by raising a resident’s petition to SMBC. Three consultations were published during 2018 to seek the opinions of all residents’ affected, the last of which ended on 31st August.  SMBC have resolved that  from April 2019 the area known as Ward BH07  will form part of a new  Hampton  Parish  with the parish being divided into two wards, Hampton Ward which will have 8 councillors and Catherine de Barnes Ward with 4 councillors of which we now have three.   The border between the two wards will be Catherine de Barnes Lane and Friday lane.

Hampton Parish Council was the first Parish Council in Solihull to get its Neighbourhood Plan(NP) adopted by SMBC .This sits alongside the Solihull MBC Local Plan and describes in detail   how the Council wish to see the Parish develop, what type of housing is required, the type of development they hope to see, transport requirements etc. You can view the current plan on the Hampton Parish Council website. The plan having been adopted means that the Parish Council is entitled to receive 20% of the monies levied on a developer as Community Infrastructure Levy. This will enable the PC to initiate beneficial community projects such as traffic calming. Neighbourhood Plans need to be reviewed in the event that there are material changes in circumstances – and hence the PC will be re-establishing the original working group, to incorporate the newly parished area into the Plan.

As pointed out in earlier documents back in September 2017and in the February 2018 Catney News this change will result in residents paying a small parish precept along with council tax to finance the activities of the Parish Council. This financial year stands at £29.79 per annum (57p per week)  for a band D property. We feel sure that you will agree that this is a small price to pay to ensure that our local community and environment is being given the focus and attention required both now and in the future.  Be assured there are no plans to dissolve the Residents Association which ideally will become more socially focused as time goes on.

Committee – Catherine de Barnes Residents Association