MORE than 700 residents in the Valley Park area have fired off letters to the office of the deputy prime minister saying they do not want to form their own parish council.
The move comes after Test Valley Borough Council wrote off to Deputy Premier John Prescott urging him to rubber stamp plans for Valley Park to split from North Baddesley parish.
The backlash has been led by North Baddesley Parish Council chairman Alan Dowden - who represents North Baddesley on Test Valley - and has vehemently opposed the idea from the start.
He and his fellow Liberal Democrats in the parish knocked on doors around Valley Park and found 700 people willing to sign letters objecting to the estate becoming a parish in its own right, and criticising a lack of information provided by Test Valley about the implications. Almost 6,000 households in Valley Park and the parishes of Chilworth and North Baddesley were asked by the borough council if they were in favour of a parish of Valley Park being created.
In Valley Park 505 residents ticked a box to vote yes, while 255 voted no.
Cllr Dowden said: "We have substantiated now, as I've said all along, that the consultation was not full and fair because all the borough council asked was are you in favour and didn't provide any further information.
"We have managed to contact about 900 houses in Valley Park and 75 per cent of those were opposed to a separate parish council.
"They have sent letters off to the office of the deputy prime minister opposing a separate parish, and we feel pretty confident that the deputy prime minister's office clearly has no alternative but to reject it or send it back for Test Valley to do the job properly."
However, Test Valley Council leader Ian Carr said the borough and Alan Dowden himself put out plenty of information to help residents decide if they were for or against the breakaway.
He said: "We have already sent our recommendation to the office of the deputy prime minister and it's up to him to decide whether Valley Park should be a separate parish.''
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