I saw my first election poster in St Peters Road, Abingdon.

Since this is a marginal seat, Lord Ashcroft has been polling Oxford West and Abingdon as one of his 114 Constituency Polls.

There are just 100 days to go until the General Election on May 7th (from 26th Jan 2015).

The District Council and Town Council elections will be on the same day. There will be a Town Council meeting this Wednesday (28th Jan at 7 pm at the Guildhall), including a discussion on the future of the Guildhall. So if you are interested in standing, why not go along and see what it’s like.

Pictured at the height of summer, Mark’s wildflower meadow, at the bottom of St Ethelwold’s garden, was named after a young man who starved to death after his benefits were cut.

Atos, the company in charge of assessing whether a lot of vulnerable people like Mark should return to work or loose their benefits, lost their government contract by mutual consent. Atos could not make a profit from the contract, and the government received too many complaints about the way cases were handled.

Autumn is now here and just a few flowers remain among the fallen leaves in Mark’s Garden.

The contract will go to a new company in the Spring. A private company needs to make a profit. The government has a political agenda and targets. So it will always be difficult to assess individuals like Mark, who have complex needs, within such a set up where time is money.

This is a contribution to the Blog Action Day on the Theme of Inequality.

Before the meeting there was a presentation on the forthcoming Abingdon Hydro share offer on November 1st.

In a second presentation The Deputy Lord Lieutenant for Abingdon, Mrs Felicity Dick, explained the role of the Lord Lieutenant as the Queen’s representative in Oxfordshire.

The Town Council Meeting then examined the minutes of the previous town council meeting (25th June), and made a few corrections. After that the council went through the minutes of all the sub-committees – discussing and voting on the recommendations.

(Pictured above is a new fashion shop that has appeared this week in Bury Street.)

The town council is a business in the proposed Abingdon Business Improvement District (BID). Like other businesses in the town centre it can vote for, or against, the BID, intended to promote the town centre at a levy of 1.5 – 1.7%  on business rates.

The Town Council actually has 4 businesses (Guildhall, Museum, Town Council etc) and each have a vote. So the Town Council voted by 17-0 with 1 abstention to vote 4X for the BID.

There followed a discussion, and agreement, on a plan for choosing a cinema operator for the Guildhall. Adverts will go out in trade magazines looking for expressions of interest. Then operators will be asked to tender to run the future cinema. A decision about the preferred operator will be made on 11th December 2014.

You do wonder whether a pop up cinema like the one in Wantage at The Beacon (the renamed Civic Hall) might validate whether the people will use the cinema they say they want.

When the County Hall Museum was redeveloped the flag pole was trimmed, cutting off the rotten end. Now it appears that the flag pole is too short as the flags are getting snagged and damaged. This has been a false economy and a new longer flag pole will be purchased.

The Town Council is also selling some of the worn Union Flags that have graced our streets to raise money for the Mayor’s Charity fund. They will be £5 each. Email the council to get one.

A company (sounded similar to the one that half planned a last minute Retro Music festival last weekend and pulled out with 3 days to go) want to do a Christmas Market Place event in December, with council help. The council did not think the company had given enough detail to their plan, and so have not approved it.

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.