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Welcome to Banbury Civic Society
Banbury is a fine country town and a delightful place in which to live and work. The aim of the Civic Society is to encourage a sustainable future for the town and to safeguard its historic past. The Society is consulted on critical planning applications, both for modern developments and in the Conservation Areas.
Issues such as town planning, public transport, new roads and housing developments as well as preserving our architectural heritage are all covered as part of our activities.
The Society makes representations to Public Inquiries, responds to planning applications when necessary and represents members’ views on local issues to the County, District and Town councils.
The Society is represented on the Banbury Traffic Advisory Committee, The Banbury Town Centre Partnership, Banbury Built Heritage Working Party and other locally-organised forums.
The Society produces a Newsletter which is distributed to members, key Councillors, local decision makers and other relevant groups.
The Society is a member of the Civic Voice, the national body of the civic movement in England.
SAVE BANBURY MUSEUM
Cherwell District Council (CDC) have put out a consultation paper about the budget proposals for 2027/8 for those living in the Cherwell district. Question 15 asks the reader to agree to the proposition that CDC
‘Support Banbury Museum to transition to a new operating model of sustainable funding sources by 2027/28, reducing its dependency on council grant funding and building a more resilient, community-driven institution - providing a saving of £0.258m in 2027/28.’
The consultation can be found here and the deadline for responses is very soon - Friday 19th December.
There is no way in which the museum could move to the status the consultation suggests. Although funding has been, and will be, brought in by the Trust that runs the museum, that is capital funding and does not cover running costs such as salaries, training etc (see annual report here for more details).
The proposal runs counter to all the encouragement that CDC has offered to the development of the town, headed by the museum and the Banbury Quays Consortium (BQC), to the development of the cultural strategy adopted in September by CDC and the suggestion that Banbury should put in a bid for Town of Culture led by BQC. Leaving another building empty in the middle of the town is no way to encourage others.
The Museum supports hundreds of children with activities and craft, supports reminiscence sessions for seniors, brings in schools to study special subjects and provides high quality exhibitions which are widely praised. The shop encourages local craftspeople who sell artefacts there.
If you don't have time to fill in the CDC questionnaire a short note of support for the museum to Gordon Stewart, the CEO of CDC would be really helpful (chiefexecutive@cherwell-dc.gov.uk) by Friday 19 December 2025.