New signs have appeared along the Ock Valley Walk. The message is addressed to ‘Pet Owners.’

‘Please clean up after your pets and keep them under control’

Easier done with dogs… Cats make messes, but tend to do it in a neighbour’s garden rather than on public paths. Then they fight and wake all the neighbours.

Dog Owners are no longer being singled out.

The new notices mark a shift from the previous campaign where it was all about dogs.

I was sent some pictures a week or so back by K.R who was not altogether happy with the way that the hedge had been cut at the corner of Twelve Acre Drive and the Road to Radley Village.

“It looks like somebody has bulldozed it with a very blunt instrument and the result is it has split and shredded the branches and main trunks of the hedge…. This method of hedge cutting is the worst because it leaves the hedge very vulnerable to disease and weakens the hedge too. It’s a messy job – there are bits of broken wood scattered all over the road around the roundabout and path, and all the grasses, thistles and wildflowers (some of which were very pretty and visited by bees) all around have also been indiscriminately mown close to the ground….”

There has been a delay in generating hydroelectricity from the Thames in Abingdon. The district council asked the community group behind the scheme to give more details about the short term impact during the build phase.

More details have been given and the plans are back in for consideration. There is another week for comments about the application. Go to the district council’s web site, http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/. Then type P13/V1315 in the search box. There are 8 reports and 16 drawings to look through. Lots of other community groups from fishermen to canoeists to walkers will be impacted.

If the go ahead is given then shares in the project will be offered to members of the community .

A scrap yard has appeared over Easter at the Rye Farm Commercial Car Park – that is the one over Abingdon Bridge and behind Rye Farm Car Park.

This evening the car park was full of caravans and other vehicles. In the middle were three open top lorries full of scrap metal, and a small crane that was breaking up an old car and some white kitchen appliances. It looked as if anything that was not metal got discarded in a ditch.

Children were playing on rope swings suspended from the chestnut trees by the causeway, and one small boy was getting a ride on a quad bike. I also saw dogs, and some hens pecking round in the dirt.