West Oxfordshire District Council - Witney

Andrew

I spent £30000 to set up a small business supporting other local businesses, the police required me to put up lights for security purposes, but the council rejected my proposal because one of them spends every night looking up at the cloudy sky with his wife’s boyfriend and the lights would interfere with it. Additionally, my tie was the proper length (end of it at my belt) and the council prefers you wear ties that are half the length they should be.

David B.

A good case study in the decline in liberal democracy. As a Canadian, the Clarkson's Farm episode where they reject his restaurant application was a somber warning of how bad things can get. I still felt like puking afterwards.

I don't understand how you need to seek permission to put a restaurant on your land. You should have the right to do whatever you want on your land, and if someone opposes it, the burden of proof should rest *heavily* on them to prove there is a compelling public interest reason not to.

Szymon G.

Hillbillies from a shabby English backwater, clearly backward councillors weren’t ready for a revolution in the form of regional development. They seem to have forgotten about dental hygiene too—unsurprising, given the medieval times they appear to still live in. Thanks to Amazon, the whole world now knows exactly what you're like.

Benjamin Y.

Voted no to the creation of local jobs
Voted no to giving a lifeline to local farmers
Voted no to boosting the local economy
Voted yes to keeping the sky dark

The carpet in my dog kennel is more useful than this shower

Congratulations on making yourselves look like utter bullies to millions

Brett M.

Petty and small minded, the worst of small town bureaucracy. Their spiteful decision in relation to Mr Clarkson's restaurant has only hurt the farmers and the community. What an embarrassment this council is to our beautiful country displayed for the world to see. Spiteful local councilors like this, are a bane to many ordinary citizens and hard working brits.

Rachel H.

From what I've seen on Clarksons farm the council have thrown up barriers every step of the way, they even said no to a farm track on his land!
So much for supporting local farmers

They have issued a statement saying that this is how they would treat any farmer.. so you would rather see a farmer fail then help them diversify. No wonder Clarkson went behind your back and opened the restaurant. Personally I would have done the same.

Bunch of beige bureaucrats!!

Victor H.

I understand that Clarkson can "irk" people. Don't get me wrong.

But Christ on a Bicycle, the people here are absolutely Moronic.

They have Little if any consideration for the law and blindly enforce rules that suit them whenever they wish, while using every trick in the book to mess with other people that they have a dislike to.

From what I've read of other reviews, they seem to mess up a lot of normal day to day stuff as well as their apprehensible behaviour towards Clarkson.

They did a good thing by allowing for Emergency construction, but let's be honest, if they had not done that, it would have been too obvious that they just hate Clarkson, that would not have helped them either.

Shame on the WODC. Shame.

FM P.

Ever since they changed the phone line opening times last week, no-one can contact them. Is that what they want, people to go away and shut up and even suffer in silence. I am one such Individual, who relied (stupidly) on the Council for help when I needed it, but their environmental health team refused to help me despite the issue I was having causing me to suffer health problems, notably Asthma. Exposure to the smell of Cannabis in the rental property is not good, but I had to put up with it for a year and a half because the Council, Environmental Health Team, wouldn't take action. Nor would they visit the property regarding a soundproofing issue, which resulted in our neighbour being very nasty to us. They said it was my fault and I should respect my neighbour. She did not respect me, so why should I have respected her? I complained, but got nowhere. Even if I send an E-Mail, it is weeks before anybody replies, then when they do, they deny everything and make me feel guilty for daring to complain. I thought I had a useful ally in my Housing Officer, when we met, she was lovely and pledged help and support us in any way she could. Then she backtracks on her pledge, saying it isn't in her remit. You could complain until blue in the face, using their Complaints Procedure, but again it's a waste of time. If it is related to Policy, the Local Government Ombudsman can't help as it is not in their remit, yet when all the stages of the Complaints Procedure have been exhausted, they say "Go to the Ombudsman ," or leave off responding until the complaint goes 'out of time.' Still very much right wing, despite joint party management of the Council, which is very disappointing.