Cllr Keith R Mitchell CBE
This page was last updated
29-01-2011
John V Harper
Born 29 January 1939
Died 30 March 2010
We are all the
poorer following the recent death of John Harper at his home in Manor Road.
He and his wife, Nini, have lived in Adderbury for almost thirty years.
I first got to know John and Nini shortly after Lynda and I moved to Nell Bridge House in 1984 and we got involved in the local Conservative Branch of which John was and has remained Chairman until the day he died. John and Nini soon became our very good friends. It was a privilege to work with John because he was a great local community activist and, latterly, a hard working local parish and district councillor who served as Chairman of Cherwell Council and remained an elected member until shortly before his death.
John had many facets.
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He was a wonderful and loving family man with a large, extended and geographically dispersed family on which he doted and that, in turn, loved him dearly. |
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He was a successful business man, with a lifetime interest in land and property. He did not fit the traditional image of the rapacious developer. Above all, he was more interested in people than in property or profit and he always worked to build trusting relationships. |
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Although never a great orator, John took to the political stage, always rooting his interest in the local community. He was a very popular Chairman of Cherwell District Council, ably supported by Nini. |
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John took up the cause of the Adderbury Library and chaired the Friends Group tirelessly. He was a generous supporter of many other local charities. |
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At heart, John was a great social animal. He enjoyed good food, good wine and, above all, good company and was hugely generous with his home, his time, his sociability and his interest in people. I know that our hearts go out to Nini, their children and grandchildren, the extended family and John’s many friends. |
We find it hard to accept he is no longer with us and we cherish the privilege of his love, of his friendship and of his memory.
65 more homes for Adderbury Berkeley Homes have registered a planning application for 65 homes on the south side of Milton Road behind St Mary's Road and Norris Close. Ironically, they are offering a football pitch as a sweetener for the village. It is ironic because Timms Homes have been working for a long time to promote a modest development on the north side of Milton Road, behind St Mary's Farm House, with a much more substantial offer of good sporting facilities comprising several football pitches and a related sports pavilion. I am also hopeful that Timms' housing proposal will be of a better quality than the "bog standard" developments that have been inflicted on us by Cherwell over recent years.