Author Archives: Admin2020

Albert Park with golden leaves

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I walked by Trinity Church and saw a funeral was in progress. A Scottish piper was waiting outside.

In the Albert Park the leaves were golden.

They look even better when the sun is shining.

On the way back, the piper was still waiting, and I saw that 6 cars in Conduit Road had tickets for parking on the single yellow line. The new civil parking enforcement is catching people out, even funeral goers – which seems a bit sad.

Today road painters have  been repainting a lot of single and double yellow lines in the town centre. The lines need to be clear if they are to be enforced.

There were a few cars parked on single and double yellow lines and the road painters could not get all the lines done. They said they would return to do the rest another day.

Great Big Mess – Theme Day

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There were strong winds and rain yesterday morning and it blew trees over. There are a group of large trees, still with their foliage, on the walk from Abingdon Bridge to Abingdon Lock.

Two of them are snapped on the main trunk, and a couple of others have been torn apart higher up.

This is how they look from the other bank of the River Thames. They are not the only ones. Other trees are broken and torn, but this group are the most dramatic.

A lot of leaves were blown into the MIll Stream. It looks a great big mess.

For November the City Daily Photo theme is Great Big Mess. Have a look at other examples of this theme at the Great Big Mess Gallery.

New civil parking enforcement from November 1st

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Cars parked on the double yellow lines in Lombard Street and St Helen’s Court have been getting leaflets ‘Observe the lines, avoid the fines’.

From November 1st, Oxfordshire County Council are taking on responsibility, from the police, for parking enforcement.

The County  Council have appointed a contractor to employ the existing residents traffic wardens and new wardens. They will get a full training course and will be looking for vehicles wrongly parked in the following situations:
* Residents parking
* On-street pay and display parking
* Double and single yellow lines
* Limited waiting bays
* Loading bays
* Zig-zag markings at schools (if restrictions apply)
* Pedestrian crossings
* Double parking (parking too far from the kerb)
* Blue Badge bays
* Taxi ranks
* Parking in bus lanes and stops
* Parking across dropped kerbs where there’s a crossing point, with or without tactile paving

The full details are at
https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/residents/roads-and-transport/parking/new-parking-enforcement-areas

Last Friday a lorry was left for five hours blocking the pavement on the double yellow line next to the Vineyard Almshouses. Jenny sent me an email at the time saying it was ‘… severely restricting access on the pavement. Two properties are not able to gain full access out onto the pavement from their own front doors. Children on their way to school and people with pushchairs and shopping trolleys have to either cross the road or walk into the traffic to get round it. The police say it is a council responsibility, and the council says it is a police responsibility.’

It was the police, who often had higher priorities. From November 1st it will be a council responsibility.

People will be waking up after Halloween to a Halloween parking ticket. I say that because I have been twice caught out by parking changes on October 31st. I hope it won’t be a 3rd.