Author Archives: Backstreeter

New Restaurant and work begins on Saxton Arms nearby

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New Restaurant
Collette wrote a week or so ago to say there a new Italian restaurant opened in Reynolds Way (Gainsborough Green area). She says “ It’s called Forno. We decided to try it out at lunchtime and were very impressed. It’s a no frills looking place but is clean. The people who run it (a young Albanian couple) are friendly and the food was very good indeed – nice fresh – great pizza base. It’s also good value. Their website is Forno Abingdon .”
New Restaurant
Not far away work has begun on the ex Saxton Arms. The most recent plans were to turn it into flats after the idea of more shops got rejected.

Craft Market

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Craft Market
The Local Excellence Craft Market takes place on Abingdon Market Place in June and early December. It was initaiily organised by the town council, and is now organised by Abingdon-on-Thames Chamber of Commerce as two additional Local Excellence Markets – with mainly craft.
Craft Market
The market included about a dozen stalls. Very popular was the batik stall run by Layla Tutt – another Layla.
Craft Market
The Loose Cannon beer tent had a steady stream of triers and buyers.
Craft Market
Beyond Bubbles soap were there, and stalls with wood turning, candles, pictures and photos, pottery, and glass, jewellery, chocolate craft, chutney, bird feeders, cakes, and of course much more.

Lib Dems win back Abingdon and Oxford West

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Polling Day
Given the recent County Council election results, which saw the Lib-Dems winning all three seats in Abingdon, the victory of Lib Dem candidate Layla Moran last night was not completely unexpected. BBC South Today showed that while most of the region is now Conservative blue, Oxford East remains Labour red, and Oxford West and Abingdon has turned Lib-Dem orange, and now has Layla Moran as MP.
Polling Day
Nicola Blackwood has worked hard as MP and very much hoped to continue as she showed in her passionate end of hustings speech on Monday. However this constituency can switch sides, as it did suprisingly to Nicola in 2010 when she beat Dr Evan Harris by 176 votes on a turnout of 65.3%. Polling Day
In 2015 she got a larger majority of 9,582, beating Layla Moran, as the Lib-Dems suffered after being in coalition with the Conservatives. This time round Layla Moran got 26,252 votes, and won the seat by 816. There was a record turnout for the constituency of 79.6%.

Polling Day in Abingdon

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The polls have closed after the snap election called by Theresa May. She wanted to increase her majority ahead of Brexit negotiations, and called it at a time when she was a long way ahead in the polls.
Polling Day
Outside the hustings on Monday, members of the Hunt Saboteurs were protesting. Theresa May pledged a free vote on repealing the ban on fox hunting in the Conservative manifesto.
Polling Day
As mentioned yesterday the Greens formed a nuanced ‘progressive alliance’ with the Lib Dems in this area, and there was the unusual sight of Green and Lib-Dem posters in the same gardens, and windows.
Polling Day
Outside polling stations Conservative and Lib-Dem tellers took down polling numbers.

The parties seem to be using the phone more than door to door these days. But the pile of literature in our letter tray was as big as usual. It even included two letters from 10 Downing Street asking us to trust Theresa May with the Brexit negotiations.
Polling Day
There was an out of reach poster of Nicola Blackwood outside the Conservative Club. Lib-Dem posters outnumbered Conservative here in Abingdon. I did not see a single UKIP poster. I liked the Labour’s simple “I’m Voting Labour”, and was impressed by their candidate – the only candidate I met during the campaign.
Polling Day
We went to the polling station at the Guildhall at about 6:30. There was a steady flow of people but no queue. Other people on twitter reported queues elsewhere. We now await the result with interest.