Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council met this evening. Cheryl Briggs is the new Mayor – the first Green Party Mayor of Abingdon-on-Thames. Michelle from Aspire did a presentation for ‘One Planet Abingdon’

The Town Council have a new ‘Urgency Committee’ that meets one day before the full Town Council. They go through the list of the recommendations from all the other committees and agree them. The Town Council can then concentrate on other matters.

The Urgency Committee had agreed that the museum basement be considered as a possible venue for One Planet Abingdon.

One Planet Abingdon is a group of concerned individuals and environmental groups from Abingdon who have come together with a vision to create a climate emergency centre, in the centre of Abingdon. The climate emergency centre could be used to host things such as:
* Abingdon Carbon Cutter activities (eg. repair cafe, apple pressing, workshops)
* Other green and environmental groups pop up sessions
* Refreshments (of an environmentally friendly nature)
* Circular economy(clothing swap shop/refills pop ups/food zero waste/repaircafe/mending workshops)
* Environmental exhibitions.

Michelle from One Planet Abingdon gave a presentation to the Town Council and answered questions. Asked how quickly the centre could be up and running, she said as soon as One Planet Abingdon have business insurance in place.

The approval to use the space in the museum basement will also need to be agreed by the relevant Town Council committees.

The existing Town Council committees are being replaced by four new committees:
* Finance, Governance and Asset Management Committee
* Environment and Amenities Committee
* Town Infrastructure Committee
* Community Committee

There will be a special council meeting on September 1st to agree which councillors serve on which committees. Since this is a big change, a new governance committee was also set up to oversee the change. The Urgency Committee was set up to expedite council matters during the pandemic and will continue for now.

Reports for the Town Council included one on Covid-19. You no longer need to book for the museum. The Visitor Information Center re-opened on 19th July.

Work to create a new cemetery could be imminent. The Town Council have saved away nearly £1m towards any costs and are waiting the district council to agree the location. One place mentioned is Masefield Crescent recreation ground agricultural land.

Looking through the committee papers, the old ‘Museum Management Committee’ had started looking again at the feasibility of a lift to the sessions hall of the museum.

The old ‘Planning, Highways and Consultations Advisory’ Committee were asked about new street names for the Kings Gate development in North Abingdon. The three names suggested so far were Mayors of Ock Street:
– (Charles) Brett
– (Leslie) Argyle
– (Henry) Hemmings

On-street civil parking enforcement will commence on 1st November 2021 and the parking warden for the Abingdon residents’ parking schemes will transfer from the Town Council to the new County Council’s contractor. The parking warden will then not only check for wrongful parking in residents’ spaces but also wrongful parking on yellow lines.