TEMPERS are flaring after a council launched a bid to stretch its boundaries into surrounding parishes.

Abingdon Town Council is eyeing up land parcels that it wants to adopt from neighbouring councils, but its proposal has been met with anger.

It submitted a request to Vale of White Horse District Council to consider a boundary review, specifically vying for:

- The village of Shippon including Dalton Barracks, currently in St Helen Without parish

- Land north of Dunmore Road that is outlined in the district council's Local Plan for 1,000 homes. The site is located partly in Radley parish and partly in Sunningwell

- Abingdon Common, which is owned by Abingdon Town Council but falls under St Helen Without's parish

- Land between Southern Town Park and Abingdon Marina Park, in the parish of Sutton Courtenay

The reason for the move is because residents living in future developments will use Abingdon's facilities, such as schools and health centres.

However, a number of parishes have hit out at the move, with St Helen Without council 'desperately angry' about the proposition.

In a letter of response to the council, its chairwoman Madeleine Russell suggested the bid was only made so the council could reap community infrastructure levy (CIL) - money that developers contribute to councils if they build within their parish.

She wrote: "[This is] a thinly veiled attempt to appropriate an area with considerable future potential in relation to development and CIL generation...Our residents value the rural status of Shippon and wish to preserve it.

"Abingdon, with the possible exception of Waitrose and Tesco, is not the focal point of our residents for services and infrastructure, given the general lack of a vibrant town centre and appalling traffic management."

The letter also stated that they had been chasing the town council for a meeting about the land for more than a year, to no avail.

Priscilla Dudding, a member of Radley Parish Council, echoed the same point.

She said: "We recognise we need to work together but they haven't shown much inclination so far. We've approached them on various occasions and either got no response or they've pulled out.

"We do look to Abingdon for services, for secondary schools and GPs, but it works two ways - Abingdon residents look to Radley for the railway station and for access to the river. We think a boundary review should at least be delayed until housing is in place."

Sunningwell parish councillor Paul Wooldridge was also 'reluctant to release the land'.

He said: "We are not happy with [the request]. They either need to let it lie fully, which is acceptable to us, or have a wider boundary review with all the surrounding areas.

"Any CIL money [from the Dunmore Road site] will come to us and of course we would not wish to give that up. It's money that would be very advantageous to the people of Sunningwell."

The district council will decide whether or not to conduct a boundary review, and if it agrees all affected parishes and residents will take part in consultation.

Town council leader Mike Badcock said: "This is no great land grab, but a matter of being sensible."

He said any CIL money would be spent on community facilities such as schools, and the timing was right because of potential that Oxfordshire County Council and district and city councils will become a unitary authority.