The Abingdon Fire Fighters attended a fire at the Timpson’s shoe repair kiosk in the Abbey Shopping Centre on Thursday morning.
The shop is now closed until further notice. If you want keys cut in town then Knights, on Ock Street, have an excellent service. For shoe repairs then there is the new Timpson’s kiosk at Tesco, Abingdon.
A wet start to Saturday and two men were down in the trenches working on the gas mains in Bridge Street. There have been temporary traffic lights, causing some queues, for the last week or so.
The Broad Face tweets “Again just to let everyone know,we are open and the work on the road has nothing to do with our gas-brunch and lunch today…”.
SAFAG (The South Abingdon Flood Action Group) were founded in or around 2000 to campaign to stop development on the flood plain near Tesco. Since then SAFAG produced a plan to protect the Ock Valley from future development by turning it into a nature reserve, and just this month have produced a new study on flood prevention using tree planting.
The Vale of White Horse is the catchment area of the River Ock, and after a deluge all the water can arrive at Abingdon in a torrent. The SAFAG study suggests that land management can help to reduce the peak flow of the river during extreme storms by delaying the arrival of storm water at Abingdon. Measures to achieve this can include strategic tree planting and woodland management along the river corridor. The full study can be a read here or by visiting the SAFAG Website.
This evening was the annual parish meeting held by Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council to let people know what has been happening in the last year. Big events in the last year were the jubilee and re-opening of the museum. There are ongoing big plans for the Guildhall.
There will be an exhibition showing those Guildhall plans about 18-20 April to include the cinema/theatre design, better accessibility to the historic rooms, as well as improving the general ambiance and look of the modern Abbey Hall.
The number of homes in Abingdon has been reduced from 12,683 to 11,580 in the last year for council tax purposes. People claiming council tax relief no longer count as part of an accounting exercise – pushing the responsibility for council tax relief onto local councils. It means a relatively small loss for the town council this year as there are transitional arrangements but that could be taken away.
We also learned:
* Allotments have had a difficult year through flooding.
* More dog bins will be provided where there is a problem.
* Abingdon in Bloom will be re-launched this year. It was called off last year.
* Work on the MG gardens has progressed well over the winter months.
* At the end of the year, when the lease ends, town council offices will be moving into Roysse Court above the registry office.
* The cemetery will fill up in 12-15 years. About £300K has been saved towards a new cemetery.
* People have praised the town council for its work helping to keep pavements clear during snow.
* The new Garden of Remembrance will soon be open for ashes.
* The James May program about mechanised Bun Throwing will be broadcast in a couple of months time.
* The Town Council planning committee voted down having Greene King replacing traditional pub signs.
The town council play equipment budget will be re-instated, although town council play equipment is in a very good state.