The  Vale of White Horse district council (VWHDC) has a new biodiversity project called Let It Bee , which reduces mowing of some council sites to allow more wildflowers and help bees and other insects. This follows on from the No Mow May trial last year.

Councillor Sally Povolotsky, VWHDC Cabinet Member for Climate Emergency and Environment, said: “When lawns and other grassy areas are kept short through very regular mowing, wild plants don’t get the chance to grow, flower and seed and thrive. In addition to increasing insect life to the area, the Let It Bee project should make the plants and the soil better able to withstand periods of extreme weather, as we had last summer.”

This will involve six VWHDC sites in Abingdon:

Abbey Meadow
Fitzharris Estate
Oxford Road
Rye Farm
Tilsley Park
White Horse Leisure Centre

Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council has been removing chewing gum stains on their pavements, including the Market Place and the County Hall. One of the town council staff has been steaming and removing gum, but it takes time and doing just those areas will take a couple of days.

I would not expect them to remove gum from the general pavements that the County Council looks after.

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.