Thanks to a kind hand for writing and sending me this report

There was a meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee of Abingdon Town Council this evening. 16 members of the public were present. Four had registered a wish to speak and one of them reminded those present that we were only able to do so thanks to the efforts of former Councillor Janet Morgan, who had sadly died a few days ago. In the 1990s she had persuaded the Town and District Councils to introduce rules to allow this, which was unusual in local government at that time.The picture taken in 2011 shows her being made a Freeman of the town.

One speaker made a strong statement in favour of the planned lift in the old part of the Guildhall. The others were more concerned with the uncertainty over the future of the Abbey Hall and the need to fill the “dark hole” caused by the absence of any town centre venue for entertainment and leisure activities. 1445 people have now signed the online petition about this, and many others have signed the offline petition. Questions were asked about the plans for the Hall, the costs of the alterations to the historic parts of the complex and whether the Council have taken professional advice on ways of improving the accessibility of the building without destroying its historic features: answers weren’t forthcoming on the night but we were told that the Committee would be discussing them in confidential session later in the evening and replies would be sent after that. There is also likely to be a Press Release in the next few days about the future of the Abbey Hall.

The Committee then went in to a lengthy wrangle about the proposals for the former South Abingdon Childrens Centre. An impasse had arisen whereby both the Town and County Councils had agreed funding, but neither would enter a formal commitment quite yet.