Author Archives: Backstreeter

Abbey Cinema lease negotiations

11 Replies


Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council held a special town council meeting this evening. The only thing to be discussed on the agenda was a confidential property matter. The town council say on their website ‘Abingdon Town Council has been negotiating with the Abbey Cinema regarding a new lease for the cinema for some time.

Recently the Cinema submitted a proposal for a new lease which is substantially different than that which we have been negotiating on.

The Council meeting on Thursday 25 August has been called so we can give matters our speedy consideration.’

On the other hand, the Abbey Cinema has said

‘The current situation is that both we and the council appointed our own professional negotiators to agree terms and to commission jointly financed reports on the state of the building prior to lease. This identified that considerable investment is required (c.£345k on roof and regulatory compliance and a further c.£280k over the next 5 years). We have offered to take on £400k of this investment.

We thought things were going well, if very slowly. Or we did until we received from the council’s solicitors on 4 August an unexpected communication containing notice that if we did not sign by the end of August, they anticipated instructions to give us notice of termination. The lease provided for signature was in draft form and bears no relation to preceding negotiations. We cannot understand this.’

A leaky business

2 Replies


There are two water leaks on Oxford Road in Abingdon, on either side of the Appleford Drive junction near the speed camera. TW engineers have visited the leaks and marked them with blue. Those leaks are at least two weeks old.

A look at the Thames Water reporting website map shows other leaks in other locations in Abingdon.

Newspapers are comparing the amount of water lost through leaks against the amount saved by the hosepipe ban – introduced today. For example ‘Thames Water wastes the same amount of water as leaving a hosepipe on every single day for more than 73 years, trade union GMB has claimed. The union said that Thames Water’s creaking infrastructure loses 635m litres in leaks every single day.’

New Store in Abingdon where time flies by

Leave a reply


The new store in Abingdon is now looking for Store Assistants to be trained in nearby stores to give them a flying start at Abingdon. I looked and ‘At the new store, you’ll never find yourself bored and twiddling your thumbs on the till as a Store Assistant. In fact, time will fly by.’

Time is flying by, and the facade has changed from grey to brown.

Over the road at the Kingsgate estate, the paths have been tarmacked so that journeys can be made on foot or by bike.

Vale and South district councils temporarily based in Abbey House, Abingdon

4 Replies


The Vale of White Horse and South Oxfordshire District Councils have terminated the lease of the office building in Milton Park. They say in a press release.

‘At the end of September, to significantly reduce unnecessary costs, we will be moving to some temporary office space in the Vale’s Abbey House building in the centre of Abingdon where we plan to stay for a couple of years while South Oxfordshire District Council completes the development of a new office building at Didcot Gateway.

We’ve been based at Milton Park since the summer of 2015, a few months after an arson attack at our headquarters at Crowmarsh Gifford, near Wallingford.

Most of the building in Abingdon is being leased by Oxfordshire County Council, but there is a small amount of available office space on the ground floor.’

The press release then explains why the move to Abingdon is temporary:

While Abbey House will be a suitable office location for the short term, over the longer term, the councils will need more collaboration and non-desk based space, in a more energy efficient building. This will help us meet our targets to become carbon neutral councils and will also help both councils to continue to improve our financial sustainability and offer the flexibility we need to recruit and retain staff in an increasingly challenging jobs market.