Catherine from the Community Safety Team at the Vale of White Horse District Council came to speak to the Town Council on the situation with the Upper Reaches Hotel. The tenant (hotel owner) has put some measures in place in December and the Community Safety Team want more done since behaviour issues are still happening. With that in mind they are looking to put in place a Community Protection Notice ( CPN ) to get the tenant to properly secure the site against the people with problem behaviour.

Town Councillors asked for timescales. Some were angry that nobody had come along to talk on longer term strategic issues of the site. The Town Clerk had however spoken with the latest personnel at the Vale Property team. The Town Clerk was told this matter is to do with the relationship between the landlord and the tenant and can’t be shared in the public domain. They property team said when they can share these things, they will.

Charter Carpark
The Town Clerk had also asked about progress at the Charter Carpark. In the upper levels there are concerns regarding structural issues and fire safety.  The district council will provide an update  for the Town Council meeting on the 30th March.

Diamond Interchange at Lodge Hill
There followed a report from Councillor Neil Fawcett of Oxfordshire County Council.

He said in response to his report on the progress of the Diamond Interchange at Lodge Hill that the first plan had been unfriendly to pedestrians and cyclists. An updated plan was more friendly to pedestrians and cyclists. The new plan would be a compromise as the Highways Agency are not going to allow a plan that causes traffic backing up from the Diamond Interchange along the A34.

A question was asked about the design being constrained by the existing bridge and its life expectancy. This question was asked because the bridge at Kennington, nearby, has failed and is being rebuilt. Councillor Fawcett responded that he was sure the bridge was inspected regularly and as it was built in the 1970s it should have a very long life still. But he would check they had taken that in consideration in the plan.

Town Councillors had been given a presentation by Bellway Homes on developing the land between the Oxford Road and Peachcroft Farm. More information and details of a webinar are available at https://www.bellway-northabingdon.co.uk/. The proposals will deliver 371 new homes, 35% being affordable, a new sports pavilion and playing pitches – along with significant areas of open space, including the central St Helen’s Park.

Councillor Jim Halliday asked that since Bellway Homes are putting a planning application in for a housing development, it would be useful to have a clue when the Diamond Interchange would be completed.

Councillor Fawcett said ‘Every stage of the process has taken longer than they’ve said at the previous stage. All I can say on the positive side is we are working our way through the steps…’

To be Continued…

There was a rainbow this morning in Bridge Street – a sign of hope on the last day of 2021.

In 2022, some of the long standing problems in Abingdon Town Centre should get resolved. They include the cause of this queue of traffic.

The arches under Abingdon Bridge need strengthening, and this meant reduced traffic access. The lights have caused tail backs up Bridge Street and Stert Street and possible air quality problems.

The leaseholder of the Upper Reaches leaseholder closed and boarded-up the hotel in 2015. Since then the site has become a blot on the river entry to Abingdon. The owner, Vale of White Horse District Council, will hopefully get the leaseholder to put forward acceptable plans for the sites future in 2022,

or take back the lease.

Most of the Charter Carpark has been closed since early March 2021. The closure did cause problems for people going to the charter vaccination centre in 2021.

There are other carpark available but the new civil parking enforcement, introduced from November 1st, has increased demand for public carparks.

Somebody took the trouble to write me a letter to say that the public conveniences at the Charter car park in Abingdon are out of order and have been for some time.

Essential maintenance work at the multi-storey Charter car park has been ongoing since 3rd March but, the writer says, ‘that effects level 3 and above, not the ground floor.‘

An issue with the public conveniences was raised on Fix My Street on 28th March 2021. I can see no progress update on fix my street, or the Charter car park website.

The writer says ‘It is rather inconvenient!’

Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council met this evening. Cheryl Briggs is the new Mayor – the first Green Party Mayor of Abingdon-on-Thames. Michelle from Aspire did a presentation for ‘One Planet Abingdon’

The Town Council have a new ‘Urgency Committee’ that meets one day before the full Town Council. They go through the list of the recommendations from all the other committees and agree them. The Town Council can then concentrate on other matters.

The Urgency Committee had agreed that the museum basement be considered as a possible venue for One Planet Abingdon.

One Planet Abingdon is a group of concerned individuals and environmental groups from Abingdon who have come together with a vision to create a climate emergency centre, in the centre of Abingdon. The climate emergency centre could be used to host things such as:
* Abingdon Carbon Cutter activities (eg. repair cafe, apple pressing, workshops)
* Other green and environmental groups pop up sessions
* Refreshments (of an environmentally friendly nature)
* Circular economy(clothing swap shop/refills pop ups/food zero waste/repaircafe/mending workshops)
* Environmental exhibitions.

Michelle from One Planet Abingdon gave a presentation to the Town Council and answered questions. Asked how quickly the centre could be up and running, she said as soon as One Planet Abingdon have business insurance in place.

The approval to use the space in the museum basement will also need to be agreed by the relevant Town Council committees.

The existing Town Council committees are being replaced by four new committees:
* Finance, Governance and Asset Management Committee
* Environment and Amenities Committee
* Town Infrastructure Committee
* Community Committee

There will be a special council meeting on September 1st to agree which councillors serve on which committees. Since this is a big change, a new governance committee was also set up to oversee the change. The Urgency Committee was set up to expedite council matters during the pandemic and will continue for now.

Reports for the Town Council included one on Covid-19. You no longer need to book for the museum. The Visitor Information Center re-opened on 19th July.

Work to create a new cemetery could be imminent. The Town Council have saved away nearly £1m towards any costs and are waiting the district council to agree the location. One place mentioned is Masefield Crescent recreation ground agricultural land.

Looking through the committee papers, the old ‘Museum Management Committee’ had started looking again at the feasibility of a lift to the sessions hall of the museum.

The old ‘Planning, Highways and Consultations Advisory’ Committee were asked about new street names for the Kings Gate development in North Abingdon. The three names suggested so far were Mayors of Ock Street:
– (Charles) Brett
– (Leslie) Argyle
– (Henry) Hemmings

On-street civil parking enforcement will commence on 1st November 2021 and the parking warden for the Abingdon residents’ parking schemes will transfer from the Town Council to the new County Council’s contractor. The parking warden will then not only check for wrongful parking in residents’ spaces but also wrongful parking on yellow lines.