To stop streets and houses from flooding, storm overflows act as relief valves and allow extra wastewater from drains and sewers to flow untreated into rivers. A new storm overflow interactive map has been produced by Thames Water. The map can be viewed at https://www.thameswater.co.uk/edm-map, and this evening at 21:00, the map showed that storm overflow was happening upstream and downstream from Abingdon.

I think the site monitored nearest to Abingdon is the one pictured near the Abingdon treatment works and was not discharging.

Thanks to Newcomer for letting me know about this from an article he read in the Guardian at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/05/interactive-map-shows-thames-water-raw-sewage-discharges-in-england-rivers.

On 18th October, The Vale of White Horse District Council voted to resist fracking exploration in the district, including all parts of Abingdon. No viable shale gas deposits have been identified in or around Abingdon, but better safe than sorry.

Communities in the Vale have another chance to apply for funding to help grassroots projects tackle climate change. Local groups and town and parish councils can apply for a share of £50,000 from the latest Vale of White Horse District Council’s Climate Action Fund, with up to £5,000 on offer for individual projects.

On the Market Place this morning, there was an RAF charity collection and a Carbon Cutters stall. People who had run the park were relaxing at their favourite coffee places.

Under the County Hall undercroft, there was a plant swap stall. There was also an exhibition with pictures of people in faraway places protesting in exotic ways about the consequences of climate change, and a dolls house where children could learn about energy conservation.

Later in the day, people gathered at the Stonehill Community Garden (at Oday Hill) for a harvest supper with food from the community garden. The garden brings a fantastic mix of people together, volunteering and learning how to produce food.

It has been a tough year because of the lack of rain this summer. There is no running water in the garden, and they depend on rain.

A set of three scythes has been purchased by the Abingdon Green Gym using a donation from Annington.

The green gym volunteer community group undertakes environmental management and repair tasks to care for green spaces in Abingdon and surrounding areas. Michael sent me pictures of volunteers in Barton Fields raking hay that had previously been cut using scythes.

Stacy Whitehead, Marketing Manager at Annington, said: ‘Gifting the scythes not only helps the gym members learn new conservation skills, but also allows Annington to do its part to conserve the local area.’ Thank you to Annington for the first picture. There are more in this week’s Herald.

Annington became one of the largest private owners of residential property in the UK following the purchase of 57,434 homes from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in 1996. Most of these properties are leased back to the MoD. A significant number, however, have been handed back to Annington who then refurbish and make available for sale or private rental at open market prices. They recently put on the market eight refurbished properties in Shippon, near Abingdon.