Author Archives: Backstreeter

St Michael’s Evening of Victorian Entertainment

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Thanks to Captain Chaos for the first picture …
Victorian Entertainment
A most excellent entertainment consisting of music and readings and drama was given in St Michael’s church this evening – 28th January.
Victorian Entertainment
The Reverend Paul Smith began by playing the part of Reverend Nathaniel Dodson, who caused St Michael’s Church to be built 150 years ago.
Victorian Entertainment
The entertainment was arranged by Hilary Clare and Glynne Butt (seen here on Pianoforte accompanying Peter Willis, a well known vocalist).

The church was crowded by a highly respectable audience.
Victorian Entertainment
The entertainment included a new selection of songs from the comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan called The Mikado. The song ‘Three Little Maids’ was loudly and rapturously applauded.
Victorian Entertainment
The evening ended with a rousing rendition of Rule Britannia.
Victorian Entertainment
Buns were thrown into the audience as we remembered Queen Victoria’s Diamond jubilee.

In the short space of an evening we relived Victoria’s reign, and its impact on Abingdon life.

It was part of the celebration of St Michael’s 150th anniversary – and was most ably executed.

Lombard Street has been closed for a week

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Lombard Street
Lombard Street, a small road in the town centre, has been closed to vehicles for the last week as repairs to water pipes are carried out. The work should be finished by Tuesday 31st Jan.

Traffic has been denied this short cut between East and West St Helen Street during the closure. Even the recycling lorry has not picked up the green bags.
Lombard Street
In 2006 the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) moved from the Courtyard, off Lombard Street, and for a while the Courtyard was used by smaller businesses until becoming fully residential.

Macnab Clarke, the defence lawyers, also moved from Lombard Street after merging with another firm in 2015. They are now part of Cartwright King in St Aldates, Oxford, near the Police Station and courts. They are still available on call if needed at the Abingdon police station.
Lombard Street
A few businesses remain in Lombard Street including Greenius, Kingwood, and Syndicut who share one property, and AAH Photography is on the corner of West St Helen Street.

Press Release about the Abbey Hall

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The Guildhall development is not to go ahead because, now the tenders have been considered, the project will be too costly.
Town Council
The press release says …

Following the recent tender exercise in relation to the proposed improvements in relation to the Abbey Hall, the Town Council, at its meeting of 25th January 2017, has reviewed the project.

The Council has, with regret, concluded that the project and the necessary works which are required to bring the Abbey Hall up to acceptable modern standards, is unaffordable in the context of the Council’s overall financial commitments and the fact that many of the services which would have been delivered from the Abbey Hall are provided by other organisations and businesses. Consequently, the capital investment required in the Abbey Hall Project cannot be justified and the Town Council will, over the coming months, be working with other local authorities to explore the possibilities of alternative community uses for the Abbey Hall.

Council Leader Councillor Mike Badcock stated: “We are unable to pursue our project in relation to the Abbey Hall. The Council have worked very hard on finding a solution which is both sustainable and affordable but have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the building has beaten us. Whilst this is to be regretted it is better for this difficult decision to have been taken now before substantial sums were committed to building works. Even based on the lowest tender we were looking at overall project costs of £3,080,000 (note this included a modest budget of £120,000 for works in the historic building). It remains this Council’s intention to move forward and re-open the historic Guildhall when any necessary works have been undertaken in relation to that building.”

Town Council Meeting on Burns Night

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Town Council
At the start of the council meeting there were a group of 13-16 year olds in the spectator seats. They were there with the youth leader from the Abingdon Damascus Youth Project to receive a cheque for £2,684. There was also somebody to receive a £7,000 grant for South & Vale Young Carers. After they left the meeting we heard shouts of delight outside.

There followed a presentation to the council by the groups: Host Abingdon, and by Abingdon More in Common.

After that a report was presented by County Councillor, Alison Rooke. This gave details of the On-Street parking consulation that was on the blog yesterday. You can respond here by 10 Feb 2017.

Town Council
As Oxfordshire received less than 5% of the £400m+ applied for from the Local Growth Fund it does mean that developing the four way interchange at Lodge Hill will be more challenging to achieve. Council officers are to meet with developers.

Because the two Children’s Centres were built with Sure Start finance of several hundreds of pounds it means future use should be for children – or the funds would be clawed back by central government.

The Mayor presented a list of all her engagements since the last council meeting, and named some upcoming events for all councillors including the annual bowls match against Oxford to be played at Oxford for the first time.

Then the council went through all the committee papers since the last Town Council meeting …

There have been two meetings of the committee considering a Community Led Plan for Abingdon but no details were given.

The museum is considering charging visitors who are not resident in Abingdon.
Town Council
The Town Crier magazine, usually sent to all houses in Abingdon 3 or 4 times a year, will not be published this year. People can visit the town council web site instead to find what is happening.

Nothing to report on the new cemetery.

Tenders had been considered for the Guildhall development and a recommendation made. So that could have been accepted in confidential session at this meeting.

There was then a discussion of the budget for the coming year. The Lib-Dem group proposed putting some money aside to show support for the South Abingdon Children’s Centre – should a sustainable project plan be produced. They noted that successful projects agreed to by the County have had support from their town councils. This led to an adjournment by the Conservative group to discuss the proposed amendment.

I left at this point for haggis and neeps. For it is Burns Night …