Over the past year, three local businesses have been moving between premises. Mez House first joined Café Aroma in its High Street location; La Bag’tte moved into Mez House’s former premises; and more recently La Bag’tte has moved in with the other two.
Bringing three brands under one roof must reduce costs. It also means you can now pop in for coffee and a baguette during the day, and a Lebanese restaurant in the evening — all in the same premises.
Laser lights from the Abingdon Bonfire & Fireworks 2025 at Dalton Barracks were visible behind Abingdon School.
The event included a large funfair and bonfire, a laser show set to music,
and a firework display — some of which I caught while cycling through Shippon.
Abingdon has marked Bonfire Night for centuries. In the 17th and 18th centuries the town’s celebrations were simple, neighbourhood events: a bonfire to burn the guy on a patch of common ground to commemorate the failure of the Gunpowder Plot.
Today’s combination of lasers, music, and fireworks would have been unimaginable to our forebears. And what would they have made of holding the celebration ten days after 5th November? Firework displays have moved to weekend dates, with large organised displays, and complicated traffic-management plans.
I’ve lost track of the years this intrepid collector has been at his post at Coxeters in Abingdon, doing his bit for Children in Need. In the summer he’s there in his shorts, tanned like he’s just stepped off the plane from somewhere far more sunny. And when November brings rain, and ‘it’s horrible out there’ – like today, he is there to lift the spirits raising money for BBC’s Children in Need.
The Kings Head and Bell also have something lined up. They say: ‘Join us this Friday for our Children in Need Charity Night in support of a great cause. Enjoy an evening of entertainment with our live DJ, a raffle, and darts.’
The South East Strategic Reservoir Option (SESRO) – now renamed the White Horse Reservoir rather than the Abingdon Reservoir – is currently the subject of a Statutory Consultation. Yesterday there was a display in the Guildhall in Abingdon given by Thames Water, working with Affinity Water.
The Roysse Room, featured models of the reservoir and embankments, and a 3D ‘drive-round’ video.
Information boards were set up in the Magistrates Court.
There were more design documents and appendices for those who need more details.
The large reservoir proposed near Abingdon has been progressing through the national RAPID “Gate” process, which reviews major water-resource schemes at 5 gateway stages to ensure the scheme is viable and affordable and wanted at each gateway before progressing.
At Gate 1 in 2021, the project was confirmed as technically feasible as a concept.
By Gate 2 in 2022, Thames Water had fixed the preferred size at 150 million m³ and estimated the delivery cost to about £2.2 billion (Ofwat SESRO Case Study).
Now at Gate 3 (2024–25), after detailed site and engineering work, the projected cost has risen sharply. The consultation documents suggest a range of £5.5–£7.5 billion. (It will be paid for by customers of the water companies over about 100 years.)
This led Vale of White Horse District Council in October 2024 to warn of ‘spiralling costs’ and call for a rethink, questioning whether such an expensive scheme is the best long-term solution for the region’s water supply (VWHDC statement).
Inside the Guildhall, the case was being put for the reservoir. Outside, a representative of GARD (Group Against Reservoir Development) handed out summaries of the case against.
New GARD objections, alongside long-standing environmental and community concerns, involve the escalation in cost and the expanding size of the scheme. The reservoir area now requires 38 km² of land – not only for the reservoir itself but also to restore lost biodiversity, relocate solar farms (some will float on the reservoir), mitigate flood risks, and reroute watercourses.
The consultation materials are available online at SESRO statutory consultation 2025. The consultation runs to 13th January 2026.
Gard material can be found at groupagainstreservoirdevelopment.org.