It is almost exactly ten years since the last Save The Pool campaign.

The 2015 Save The Pool Campaigners have set up a pop-up pool outside the Community Shop in Bury Street to demonstrate the alternative if the Open Air Pool were to be filled in. They say the only way of keeping the pool, which first opened in 1952, is if people choose Option A after going to the Community Shop or http://tinyurl.com/AbbeyMeadow.

Inside the Community Shop the Abbey Meadow development options are outlined: Option A (Pool +), Option B (Cafe +) and Option C (Variety), and there are experts on hand from VWHDC (Vale of White Horse District Council) to answer questions.

Refurbishing the pool and making it structurally sound for the future could cost around £250K – so about half the budget. Refurbishing the changing area will take another £150K. But people could choose to get the pool done and not the changing area – perhaps improve the kiosk and add some seating instead.

Similarly the Cafe will take up a lot of the budget as it will be in an area prone to flooding.  Having taken advice VWHDC did not think an operator would be interested in financing the building stage, but once built, operators would be willing to run the cafe.

None of the options include improving the Sustrans cycleway to make for better dual cycle and pedestrian use, but Option C could take some pedestrians onto additional nature walks. None of the options appear to keep the pitch and putt either.

I gathered that VWHDC hope to get a clear mandate from this consultation.

Everybody in Abingdon should already have got a letter about voting in the forthcoming elections for parliament, district council, and town council.

1. Postal Vote
The quickest and easiest way is to vote by post. To do so you need to register by 5pm on Tuesday 21 April 2015 – for an application form see www.southandvale.gov.uk.

2. Polling station.
About three weeks before election day you will be sent your official poll card and details of your polling station. To cast your vote at your polling station you need to do so between 7am and 10pm on Thursday 7 May 2015.
Polling stations are:
The Guildhall
Hadland Road Community Centre
Preston Road Community Centre
Long Furlong Community Centre
Scout Hut Farm Road
Northcourt Centre
Abingdon United Football Club
All Saints Methodist Church
St Johns Ambulance Headquarters
Jephson Common Room (may now be called Stonewater Common Room)
North East Abingdon Community Centre

3. Proxy
You can also ask a friend or family member to make the trip to the polling station or return a postal vote on your behalf. To find out more visit: www.southandvale.gov.uk or call 01235 540310. Applications must be received by Tuesday 28 April 2015.

If you miss this chance to vote the next one will be May 2019 for town and district, and May 2020 for national elections, by which time there will be a lot more water under the bridge.

Just 50 days until the election and the UKIP Common Sense Tour bus visited Abingdon town centre early on Sunday morning.

Their local candidate Alan Harris was on board.

UKIP, the UK Independence Party, want the UK to leave the EU. They did very well in the European Elections last year, and it will be interesting to see how well they do in the national elections.

At this meeting, Town Council committee chairs reported back on what the town council had been doing in the last year. Here are some bits and pieces that caught my attention …

The Finance and General Purposes Committee recommended that, as the current town centre traffic wardens are retiring in September, the responsibility for monitoring Residents Parking is returned to the County Council. The scheme was introduced in 1994 to allow residents to park near their homes. The current wardens have provided an excellent service. The Committee feel council staff are overstretched and so are not sure they can carry on with this service. The final decision is for the full Town Council.

The Amenities Committee reported another successful Fun and Music in the Parks in 2014. Tickets go on sale for the next Music in the Park on Monday.

There is an estimated ten years space left in the cemetery, and it will take 5 years to set up a new one, and so this is becoming a more pressing concern.

The Town Council is still waiting for Tenders from Cinema Operators before finally deciding on plans for the Guildhall – although the closing date has been set as August 31st 2015. The council are still looking for the best place to site the Information Office. One possibility is the Museum basement.

Throwing Buns, under new ownership, will not be running Buns in the Basement anymore, and so The Mousehole Cafe could be returning.

The Town Council got an award for good use of Heraldry. Here are the current Deputy Mayor, Councillor Helen Pighills, and The Mayor, Councillor Angela Lawrence, with the award.

The Vale District Council will be considering the new plans for the Drayton Road estate next Wednesday, when Taylor Wimpey put forward their own plans, rather than those inherited from the original applicant.

Choose Abingdon is no longer supported financially by the District Council or County Council and the Manager has left to take up a post with the Town Council. The Town Council is still supporting the Choose Abingdon committee with £10K next year. That is so that the work on the Business Improvement District (BID) proposal can go to a vote in the summer.

New bus shelters are coming on Marcham Road. The County Council pays for them, and he Town Council maintains them.