There was a lot on the agenda for yesterday’s Town Council planning committee meeting, and Councillors were also involved in the WWI commemoration, and so it was decided to postpone the meeting until this evening.

65 Oxford Road was on the agenda twice.

There was letter ‘for information’ from The Vale of White Horse Planning Department addressed to the architect of the developers saying that cutting down the trees without permission could have resulted in a range of penalties. But that the planning department would take no further action this time as there are more serious cases needing their departments limited resources.

Orchard Development Ltd have submitted new plans for two new dwelling on the same plot as an alternative to the other plans. A developer can submit any number of plans for the same plot if they want.

There were also re-submitted plans for 55-59 Stert Street and Abbey Court. The previous plans had been withdrawn because of opposition, and the revised plans are intended to be more in keeping with the area. The proposed frontage no longer looks like ‘the red light district in Amsterdam’ as one Councillor put it. But the Town Council planning committee still recommended refusal on the grounds that the new buildings are overbearing and out of keeping with the area.

There was also the re-submission of altered plans for 159 Houses off the Drayton Road. Again the Town Council committee recommended refusal because of traffic, road safety, and other concerns. Public comments can be made on the Drayton Road plans until 13th August. See P14/V1196/FUL.

The Town Council is a consultee on planning, and actual decisions will be made by the Vale of White Horse District Council at a future planning meeting.

I did advertise this meeting beforehand and members of the public did turn up wanting a say. I should have said this was a Council Meeting and that the public normally need to request to speak beforehand. Fortunately there were not too many of us and it worked out alright thanks to the Chairman.

The lease is up at the end of June for both the Town Council and The Citizens Advice Bureau at Old Abbey House. The new buyer is not yet known but rumours include: pub, arts centre, hotel, mosque, housing ….

And so the address for the Abingdon & District Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is now Abbey House, Abbey Close, and CAB balloons are out.

Abbey House, in Abbey Close, also has new signs for Oxfordshire County Council, the other new tenant.

Outside Old Abbey House there is some office equipment, available for Free. It includes cages for displaying information leaflets, a reception desk, and some chairs.

Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council have also vacated this building to move to the Guildhall.

In the Roysse Room this evening there was a Meeting of Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council. These are my jottings …

Abingdon-on-Thames was given a special award for the Corporate Use of Heraldry for their use of the town’s heraldic symbol.

We heard that The Mayor, Angela Lawrence sat unperturbed when a rat ran out at a recent event she attended.

A grant was awarded to the Foyer for £5,000 to support additional opportunities for residents (sport, job seeking, community involvements, trips etc). The Foyer gives accommodation to young homeless people and often helps to turn their lives around.

A grant of £10,000 was given to Abingdon Rugby Club towards urgent ground work to their pitches.

Councillor Alice Badcock was congratulated for organising Fun and Music in the Park.

The architects have come back with revised costings for the Guildhall development after the failure to secure a lottery grant. The improvements to the frontage and foyer area have been dropped. What remains is a modular design :

• 100 seat cinema
• Abbey Hall including removable racked seats
• Lift to some but not all historic rooms
• Bar cafe area in the lower ground floor lobby and offices where the old bar was.

The costs are still in the range of £3,500,000 – £4,000,000 because of inflation so don’t seem that much lower. The design was described as ‘modular’ and ‘pick and mix’. If funding cannot be found for one option such as the cinema then it may be dropped. Exploratory meetings are to go ahead to see if a cinema operator partner will help with funding.

The annual accounts did show that The Guildhall costs £224,362 to run in 2014 and £148,831 in 2013 (excludes income). But on questioning it was discovered that a large part of the difference was the £30K gas bill. Both gas bills were paid in 2014.

The Museum are producing a book about WWI in Abingdon to go with their exhibition starting on 4th August (exactly 100 years from when the war was declared).

The MG Garden is now complete and the Mayor will open it in the near future.

The solar powered Christmas Trees have been put up for sale by the contractor as they did not perform too well for Abingdon-on-Thames.

A new working group is to be set up to find land for a new cemetery. There is 10-15 years left of Grave Space and it will take five years to set up a new cemetery. If the town counncil did run out of room then the district council are ultimately responsible for burials but that could mean Abingdon residents getting buried in Wantage or Faringdon.

As one of 380 million people in Europe entitled to vote I went into my local polling station: the Guildhall in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, and received a voting paper. The voting paper for our region, South East England, was very long and included 15 parties – most with ten candidates.

The elections are for membership to the European Parliament – the only directly elected EU institution, and one with great powers, but not easy to understand.

At a normal national or local election I would come home after voting, and watch with interest for the result. This time there will be no result until Sunday – when all nations have voted. Even then – given the complex political groupings in Europe – I won’t know who has won. The media here in the UK will concentrate on how well the UK parties have done – something we do understand.