The ex Saxton Arms was being boarded up yesterday following a call out for the fire service (reported in The Abingdon Herald). I don’t think the building was badly damaged, but the new owner is securing the building, pending work to bring the building back into use. There was a recent planning application to turn the building into flats.

Another boarded up building in the paper was the ex Upper Reaches Hotel. It will get extra police patrols following reports that people are playing in the grounds, and causing minor damage.

The Old Boat Yard is looking overgrown.

The Ferry Boat House has a new sign to say ‘Land Acquired’ by a new owner.

I would miss this boat house with it’s corrugated sides. It is part of the river view here in Abingdon.

PS. Captainkaos2 found this old photo, dated 1882, of the boat house. It was Roysse’s (now Abingdon school) old boat house.

At North East Abingdon Community Centre this evening there was a second exhibition by the developers CEG who are planning to build 900 homes on fields north of Abingdon.

There were display boards to peruse, and questionnaires to fill in. The board also gave some feedback on what people have been saying at the first exhibition.

People appeared most concerned about good road infrastructure.

This comes at a time when the leader of the Vale of White Horse District Council is looking to put more housing into the local plan. He said yesterday, talking about unmet Oxford City housing need, “The work carried out by the Oxfordshire Growth Board has apportioned 2,200 of this unmet need to the Vale of White Horse district. Today I agreed that figure on behalf of the Vale and the Council will now work to address this as we develop our work on Local Plan Part 2“. So it is quite possible some of those 2,200 houses could be for Abingdon.

The junction from the Morland Gardens development to the Drayton Road has taken shape over the last few weeks (this is the controversial development of 158 dwellings in a field just south of Abingdon). Posts for traffic lights have been erected, and utilities have been connected. The new dropped curbs currently go nowhere,

but soon they will take people to the new bus lay-by towards Abingdon and Oxford.

The view from the twin towns estate has changed with tree tops being replaced by roof tops. The rusting museum piece vehicles that block up Lucca Drive will NOT (correction after comments) one day give way to a path for pedestrians and cycles.