Free Parking was introduced in December 2011 and for the first year or so there were temporary signs round car parks warning people to get a ticket for the two free hours. These are now replaced by permanent signs.

At each entrance into town there is now a Free Parking sign

Reynolds Way pharmacy have signs all round South Abingdon saying they have Free Parking. Parking was always free at Reynolds Way but it helps advertise a fairly new service – so clever marketing.

Recently Waitrose changed to have 2 hours free parking to fall in line with other carparks – they were 90 minutes.

And every morning along Wilsham Road you will see a long queue of cars who get all day Free Parking. People working in the town centre can save £5.30 (6 hour+) a day by walking the last half mile. But it is not always so popular with Wilsham Road residents.

Tim Valentine, the busking pianist, was playing his piano on a trolley in town this morning. The music warmed passers by on a cold morning.

A funeral director walked in front of the hearse out of Conduit Road and along Ock Street, then moved to the side of the road and bowed his top hat with great respect towards the coffin inside.

A red van had come from Banbury and was trying to find the way round the Abingdon road system. After asking a postman, he went round and round the one way system two or three times, then drove round and round East St Helen Street and West St Helen Street before finding the final destination: Lansbrough Lettings in West St Helen Street.

I was asked, by an electrician, on the way to Trinity this morning whether the hole in the road could have anything to do with the almshouses having lost half their power.

There was an electrical fire down a manhold cover in Ock Street on Saturday evening. As far as I know electrical supplies had been reconnected by Sunday morning so the electrician probably just needed to reset something. As to the hole in the road, I haven’t seen anybody working on it during Sunday when it was causing holdups to traffic.