The boarded up Upper Reaches hotel was in the Abingdon Herald again last week, lamenting the continuing loss of a great place for people to stay. The surrounding area is lovely, and  with the right people in charge it would work.

Meanwhile a Hilton Hotel is expanding in Abingdon next to the A34.

Abingdon Green Gym were out last weekend at the Ock Valley Walk renewing the wood chip path, clearing round trees, and litter picking.

The small saplings they planted several years ago are flourishing now and in leaf.

They will be back again on the Ock Valley Walk on 5th May according to their programme. The Green Gym programme aims to give people a way to keep fit while improving the local environment.

Geoff says ‘This is an all too typical sight in the Long Furlong area of North Abingdon. Complaining to Biffa, the Vale or local Councillors may or may not resolve the immediate problem but long term they all have proved themselves incapable of organising a schedule that prevents this insalubrious spectacle.’

When I was young I remember writing a message in a glass bottle and throwing it into the sea. Nowadays most of the bottles are plastic, like this one off St Helen’s Wharf.

The Prime Minister declared today she wants to outlaw single-use plastic containers.