Lighthorne Heath parish gets new name after village vote

Residents of Lighthorne Heath have voted to change the name of their parish to Upper Lighthorne.
Lighthorne HeathLighthorne Heath
Lighthorne Heath

The parish made the name change with the expected arrival of 2,000 new homes to the area.

Parish residents were recently mailed letters, which included a ballot they could use to vote on the new name.

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Parish Council Chair Ian Campbell said: "We had a wonderful response to the ballot. Of 602 ballot papers sent out it generated 37.73% response."

The parish council had already shortlisted four names for the election, which included King’s Holt, King’s Meadow, Longbrook and Upper Lighthorne.

Upper Lighthorne won the election with 118 votes, while Kings Meadow had 42 votes, Longbrook with 40 votes and Kings Holt took last with 15 votes.

Mr Campbell added: "Our objective now is to focus on developing the structure for those who will be joining the parish to feel welcome.

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"This involves developing sports, activities, meeting opportunities, youth clubs etc, and provide activities for the elderly. As there will be no real infrastructure to support the new parishioners. Until the first 1000 houses are occupied it rests with us to provide these services.

We are fortunate in that Stratford District Council are supporting us and providing information and where possible, assisting with grants."

Developers have already started work on phase I of the project, which includes 130 new homes on the Lighthorne Heath side of the B4100.

All costs associated with the election were being paid for by the developers not the parish council.

Mr Campbell added: “The village will still remain as Lighthorne Heath. The only thing that changes is the parish boundary and name."

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