Thanks to Brian for this picture of the Mayor of Sint-Niklaas, Lieven Dehandschutter, with the Mayor of Abingdon, Jan Morter. During his time in Abingdon, Lieven spoke to about 300 children at St Nicolas School. It was the then headmaster of St Nicolas school who fifty years ago initiated the twinning between Abingdon and Sint-Niklaas. Lieven toured Abingdon with Jan Morter and had lunch at the Nags Head. He spoke as an invited guest to Abingdon and District Twin Towns Society on 800 years of Sint Niklaas. This was followed by frites with mayonnaise, waffles and Belgian beer. He also gave an interesting talk to Abingdon Town Council at the start of their meeting. He spoke on the subject of twinning.
This was followed by a talk by the deputy Director of the local Citizens Advice. She told members that the CA helped over 1700 people from Abingdon last year. The CA has very few paid staff – they rely heavily on volunteers and it is calculated that, in addition to financial savings for their clients, every £ invested in the service produces over £26 in public value (economic and social) and nearly £5 in direct savings to government.
As to the Town Council meeting there was a good turnout of members of the public.
Under Matters Arising from previous meetings they heard some good news: The X3 Bus will once again go to Oxford Station as from Monday 23 October – but only till 8pm and with variations to the route – it may not be possible to join it in St Aldates. Check before you travel!
The Town Council has now released its promised funding for the Family Centre at the former South Abingdon Childrens Centre.
The District Council have now approved the release of “S.106” money, their contribution, for the Lodge Hill slip roads so hopefully work will be able to start soon.
The matter which had brought most of the audience to the meeting was the discussion on the Guildhall and Abbey Hall. Over 1500 people had signed the online petition and nearly 300 had signed a hard copy. The two main issues of concern were the proposed loss of the Abbey Hall as a venue for community use and the plans to remove the 1731 staircase in the old part of the building to allow room for a lift and a narrower staircase. In response to these concerns, the Council agreed to look into ways of bringing the Abbey Hall back into use and to get professional advice on alternative ways to improve disabled access to the old parts of the complex, without causing irreparable damage
There may also have been a formal request for a public meeting about all of this. So that could be happening fairly soon.
After the Guildhall discussion there was a brief update on the Community-led Plan proposal. The results are still being analysed but the organisers were disappointed that more young people hadn’t taken part and that those offering to help with the follow-up work were mainly people already active in the community – they are keen to reach out much more widely. Hopefully they will find a way of doing that.
During the meeting there was a long discussion, followed by a vote, on whether the word Chairman should be replaced by Chair (or Chairperson) – which was was lost. Monica Lovatt was one of the opponents, and said ‘I do not have 4 legs’.
