On what was a wet August Bank Holiday, a new notice has appeared in the ex ER Goffs Shop to say Barber Open Soon.
The water feature seems to send up fountains spontaneously whenever it is raining.
There were only a few families enjoying the outdoor facilities of the Abbey Meadow at about 11am this morning. One family were playing pitch and put; two young families were in the play area; but nobody was in the Open Air Pool.
The rain got heavier as the morning progressed, and eased off again in the afternoon. Shops open this Bank Holiday were more the national chains than the local independents.
another barbers???!!!!
I just said the same to my husband but he pointed out that pretty much all the barbers have queues….. We waited for over half an hour to get my children’s haircut on Saturday. Unfortunately, they weren’t good cuts so not really worth the wait!
Come back Dickie Cleter !
Steve Whose he??
Dick owned (along with partner Roy) the gents barbers in Stert St, he retired a couple of years ago after cutting hair there all his life ! We all joked when in 1960 he called it hair 70 but never in a million years thought he’d still be there 50 years later! happy to report he’s still alive and kicking !
Happy days.
ps, sorry dick for the miss spell “Cleater”
Remember Dick and Roy, When we moved to Abingdon that is the only Barbers we visited. (and ladies hairdressers next door for Mum).
I recall when the ‘7’ fell off and it was nicknamed Hair ‘O’s
(Hair Ohs!). Time they redecorated and had lots of plants inside (Some real, some artificial?? nicknamed The Jungle), someone put up inflatable animals (Parrots especially).
Many Happy memories.
On another note, a few threads back Cllr iain Littlejohn was defending the removal of covenants from Fairacres stating the new B&M store would only be selling “Mars bars at the checkout” best he check’s out today’s Abingdon Herald’s licencing applications, they have applied for an off sales liquor licence from 08.00am to 10.00pm !
Perhaps you owe the towns traders a apology Iain ?
As usual you tell half truths steve. I said the covenant change was not for all the stores in fairacres which you had said and that the b&m was for impulse purchases such as mars bars – maybe they also see a can of beer in that category. I fail to see why i owe any apology to town traders. Given you’re not a town retailer and last i saw you are not a representative of them i’ll ignore your comment. I know enough of them personally to know how they generally regard your comments steve, and they are more than capable of speaking to me directly if they have a problem with anything i say or do.
I think it high time your thought process was brought to account.
1, you are one of the proposers of the current BID project, you would have been instrumental in drawing up the district map of which all business inside would pay a compulsory tax, but by coincidence you are just the other side of the road of where the zone ends, so you wont pay a penny?
2, the only premises to be excluded from paying the compulsory tax are charity offices (not shops, they will have to pay) are you not a trustee of a charity that has its office smack bang in the middle of the district and has been give dispensation by you not to pay?
3, you are a town councilor, how can you operate with a foot in both camps? on the one hand the TC will be expecting you to find ways of reducing their costs/spending, while on the other hand you put yourself up to be minder of the funds taken from business in the BID zone, what message of confidence that the fund will be properly spent does that give?
By the way, how much have you so far spent of tax payers money on the Guildhall project? in March it was £65k, it must be over £100k now and not a brick has been laid.
Steve – ill informed rubbish as usual.
I’m not even going to dignify that with a response. I have zero self interest in the bid which i am supporting as i think it is a good thing for the town and its businesses. It will not go ahead if the businesses do not support it – it is their choice – not yours!
If you trully cared about this town perhaps you should spend less time knocking the efforts of others and put a bit more effort into doing something positive yourself.
I would love to see a live debate between Steve and Iain,
Maybe we could have it in the market place in front of a baying crowd 🙂
Iain. I think that you should answer these questions? Isn’t there a conflict of interest here? From what Steve says, you have zero self interest because none of this will actually affect you, cost-wise?
Rather than slate someone personally, for asking a valid question, wouldn’t it be better to put everyone’s minds at rest and answer the points made?
I too would like to know exactly how much money has been spent on the Guildhall “refurbishment” so far? And are we any closer to getting our cinema?
Casting aspersions on a councillor’s participation in an initiative simply on account of the fact that the councillor may not stand to be personally or directly affected by its outcome isn’t a very clever point, in my view.
1. I do not own a commercial premises in abingdon so have no personal interest in where the boundary is drawn
2. I am an elected representative of an organisation (the town council) which does pay business rates so do have a legitimate role in the discussion
3. Steve is ill informed and just stirring up trouble based on misinformation – as he has done persistently on this and other issues. Why, Julian, do you say he is allowed to erroneously attack my integrity, when i am not not allowed to challenge in similar terms his assertions?
4. On the cinema, we are, as previously communicated, talking to potential operators, this part of the process may take a while and is i’m afraid commercially confidential, but is progressing well. Regarding costs, i have nothing to add to the previous three or four times you and steve have asked this question, which i answered.
Given the inexorable rise of the internet, councils (plural) will never be widely trusted until they are open with the details of all their dealings. ‘It’s too complex’ and ‘commercial confidentiality’ is just flim-flam for politicians to hide behind.
Guildhall Cinema project expenditure is at least the £65K we were told at the beginning of the year plus (at least) another £25K which has been added to this …. that’s £90k and probably more specifically allocated. This excludes a monthly operating loss of what? … £8/9/10K per month … say (conservatively) £100k pa since the TC has been pursuing a reason for being bonkers enough for taking on the Guildhall.
This is not chump change and shows a real lack of financial discipline on the part of the TC.
Given this, even though I’m not as up-to-pace with the BID details as those above, I think we’ve all got to have marked concerns as to how the TC is conjuring Abngdon’s finances.
As I have said before, I was disappointed that so few members of the public attended the Abingdon Parish meeting in March. The audience was mainly Councillors and political activists. The Leader and Chairmen of the committees gave briefings and answered questions thoroughly, and as I know, honestly. Very little is kept confidential and the information is made public as soon as possible.
Full Council and Committee meetings are all open to the public. At full Council and Planning meetings members of the public can speak if they ask in advance – this is common with all Councils. The minutes of meetings are on the Town Council website.
As to money spent on the Guildhall, the old part has been refurbished. To get best value for the Council Taxpayer, and because we do not have the expertise ourselves, Councillors are ordinary people after all with a variety of backgrounds, we sometimes have to obtain advice from consultants who are experts in their field.
There is plenty of opportunity to find out what the Council is up to if one is interested.
Monica Lovatt Town Councillor Fitzharris Ward.
“Very little is kept confidential and the information is made public as soon as possible”
What about the Old Gaol why are those dealings with Cranbourne still so secret?
Got something to hide?
Its all talk and no action from where Im standing, I went round the shops today in Abingdon town centre, took me all of 5 minutes, its dire.
The Old Gaol is/ was owned by the Vale District Council. The only influence the Town Council has on its progress is to comment and make recommendations on proposals.
The Town Council has no power to require the Vale to share information.
There are town councillors who are alos District Councillors – I am one- but we also have very little say in what is made public. the decisions are made by the leader and cabinet. As yet, there are no Abingdon councillors in the cabinet.
Rolf, I am sad to read that you think the shops in Abingdon are rubbish. I meet many visitors to the town who tell me what a lovely place it is and none of them have commented adversely on the shops.
Many interesting shops open and then close again because people don’t use them.
The town council has tried very hard to increase the footfall by enhancing the market place and ensuring that that there are lots of events on it. The town has Money is spent on the flowers and flags which further enhance the town’s attractiveness and encourage people into the centre.
We can get people in, and we do, but we cant force them to buy. If the shops arent used they are forced to close. Then people complain that they are forced to shop elsewhere.
If you have any good ideas on how we can break the cycle, the town council and the chamber of trade will be very glad to have them.
The decision on the Old Goal was made in 2007 under a Vale District Council Liberal Democrat administration. I believe that Angela was a member at the time.
Under the Freedom of Information Act ( Tony Blair admits that this act is his biggest regret) commercially sensitive information is exempt from disclosure. In fact a local Council is forbidden to divulge any information that can be regarded as commercially sensitive and might compromise the competitiveness of a business.
So can someone explain to me please, how can a decision that was made in 2007, still be “commercially sensitive” SEVEN years later? Maybe someone should now apply under the FOIA and see whether this can finally be revealed after all this time? Until this is finally out in the open, there will always be a shadow of mistrust over all concerned, possibly/probably without justification? Can’t we even be told whether the full amount (whatever that was!), has been fully paid, or was it, as some suggest, written off as a bad debt?!
Julian, The answer is that the deal was negotiated between Cranborne Homes and Vale Council officers. The agreement was then reported to the Executive which was led by Cllr Jerry Patterson, who approved it. The details of the arrangement have not yet been fulfilled. Hence they remain confidential.
You may wish to write to the Chief Executive of the Vale, David Buckle if you want further information.
The apologists above defending the councils (plural) ineptitude should be ashamed of themselves and are no friends of the people of Abingdon. As for any of them who are councillors … when are the next elections?
Are we to be fobbed off by being referred to the useless David Buckle. And The Leader and his Cabinet … inanely grinning self-servers.
Thank you Monica. Yes I was a member of the Executive when the decision over the Old a Gaol was made. I was against Cranbourne Homes getting the contract so didn’t support them. All I can remember about the decision msking is that we were sworn to secrecy presumably for the reason Monica said. My own involvement as the then housing portfolio holder was to ensure an adequate amount of affordable housing, and temporary accommodation for homeless families was provided through section 106.
This was agreed but It is difficult to get answers as to why it hasn’t been provided, and when it might be.
My point was that it was nothing to do with the Town Council, who seemed, from the comments made, to be getting the blame.
Angela has a good point here … it’s too easy to blame all politicians for the sins of the few. Once I’d disentangled who was responsible for what mess I realized that the TC’s current main blunders are their misguided attempts to develop the Guildhall and, potentially, the BID project, which seems an attempt to move some council expenditures ‘off the books’ ie find a means to get the tax-payer to cough-up more money to cover the cost of things they thought they were paying for already.
Other councils, but mainly The Vale, are responsible for all the other major cock-ups. The Old Gaol appears to be a classic example of total mismanagement of a public resource, which The Vale would prefer was now brushed under the carpet. However, The Vale Planning Department seems to be developing a reputation for sleep-walking into pratfalls (think Drayton Road development) and approaching planning in Abingdon with a total lack of sensitivity and an eye mainly to how much more money The Vale can loot out of the town.
I’m sure it’s a lot more complicated than this and if it isn’t then politicians aren’t don’t their job properly, which is to obfuscate about everything to keep voters in the dark. That’s their role … to bring darkness where there could and should be light.
Thank you, but my point is, hasn’t the TC got more clout with the Vale than the average “Joe”, and aren’t the TC interested in whether millions owed from THEIR town’s assets has ever been paid in full, and has ONE PENNY of ABINGDONS MONEY come back to ABINGDON?! If not why not, and why is the TC not interested and why aren’t they doing everything in their power to find out and make it happen?! I know I’m interested and it sounds like a lot of other people on here are! Its election times soon, so maybe the first question to ask the doorstep canvassers should be, “What are you doing about the Old Gaol millions?” What could a several million pound cash injection be used on for the town? Suggestions please?
And what about Tilsley Park which tomorrow will be GIVEN to a private school the terms of which gift are a SECRET. Will state schools be able to use it? In, say, ten years time, will they pull it down and build a block of flats there, on the grounds that they can’t afford to maintain it?
Newcomer, Councillors, like everyone, have to abide by the law of the land.
An apologist, no just stating facts.
Well, Monica, you’re a politician and if the law of the land is standing in the way of open and fair government then you’re in the right place to start changing it.
I think someone from Cranbourne Homes should speak up and tell the people of Abingdon what is happening with the buildings that they acquired.
There are comments and views from everyone except them and they are major players in this town!