Boots Opticians opened just over a week ago in Bury Street. That brings the number of opticians in Bury Street to four – so it is quite a centre of excellence.
Also on Saturday I spotted a group of people on the Market Place with a ‘Save The NHS’ petition. They want:
• To put a stop to privatisation of the NHS
• Make sure it has the funding it needs to provide high-quality healthcare
• Protect it from US health corporations by keeping the NHS out of the TTIP trade deal with America
The petition is also online: www.38degrees.org.uk/nhs.
This is a genuine question, does anybody have responsibility of overseeing the type of shop that is allowed to open in the town? Or are they so desperate to fill spaces that anything goes?
Hairdresser’s and Opticians !!
and coffee shops…..bread and cakes next to each other/opposite Greggs- /Parsons and Costa.
I just don’t understand that if yet another optician thinks there is enough business to go around, why don’t other high street stores?
Agree with Astronaut, another opticians isn’t going to draw people into town. On the other hand, it’s one less empty unit.
These are all businesses that do not suffer so much competition from the internet. Many of us buy our stuff on the internet now and the high street cannot compete; we get the stores we use. Difficult to get your eyes tested or hair cut online. Although I have noticed that I am no longer given my prescription handed to me at the opticians any more. Years ago the optician always gave it to me. Not too difficult to work out why this should be!
I live 2 miles outside Abingdon and only visit the town for the doctor, dentist, library and,once every 2 years, an optician. I would rather drive or catch a bus to Witney as there is so much choice. Smaller independent shops trade alongside the high street chains. It is too late for an Abingdon revival which is very sad as it could attract so many more visitors if it offered more. Also, I wonder where all the new residents in the hundreds of new properties proposed, are supposed to shop
Don’t worry Liz…we have various bodies paid for from our taxes, working on the nub of this very issue…and they have been now for a number of years…any moment now we should start seeing the fruits of their labour. Any moment….
I thought I was seeing double….
Walked through the Precint this afternoon and thought to myself, that there wasn’t really any reason why anyone would travel to visit Abingdon for shopping. It’s good for locals but to travel anywhere, I and maybe other people would like something a little different in choice..
Astronaut – there is no organisation with any powers to control what sorts of shop set up in any area.
There are some limited areas determined by type of use designations, which may limit a unit to retail or a restaurant, and there are some types of store that require licensing such as betting shops.
Fundamentally, the only two people who can actually control what types of shop set up in town are the landlords who own premises and retaillers themselves who consider setting up here.
Hope this helps
I asked this question some years ago. I had a madcap idea that Abingdon might try to capitalise on its historic nature by encouraging antique and artisan shops, and i wondered if the council could incentivise certain types of shops by offering discounted business rates.
turns out such a thing is illegal.
Iain, thanks for that…but aren’t organisations like CHAPs set up to, amongst other things, improve the shopping ‘offer’? If so…perhaps we no longer need that council expense?
Choose Abingdon has been about encouraging things to happen. The question was about whether a body can control what is allowed.
Come on Iain, we all know that Choose Abingdon has done nothing for the town except introduce a loyalty card scheme that no longer works, put a few maps around the town & piggy back onto other people’s events just to put their emblem on posters so it looks like they do something. And now with no funding what have you actually achieved ? NOTHING.
Thanks Iain, pretty much as I thought.
The story used to be that the landlord were carefully vetting retailers and would only allow the ‘right’ kind of retailer into Bury Street.
Well, it looks like not believing that at the time was the right judgement call. I guess we just discount anything the councils tell us as fatuous spin.
I don’t know if I just don’t understand…. The prevonct, bury street, abbey centre, or whatever it is, is an asset…or land owned by freehold by “Abingdon”…. as in we, the rate payer entrust ” the council”, in this instance, to manage this land of ours….and to this end they are on control of the freehold….the land itself.
Then, that land had buildings put on it, which are owned or managed by some confusing off shoot of Scottish Widows…who has the Leasehold.
So, surely, it is up to the leaseholder to be doing their best for this asset? In fact, is it correct that if the leaseholder is NOT performing….then “we” – the council – the Freeholder can legally demand that the leadeholder either improve…or bugger off!?
Surely, of the 35000 residents in the town…someone must have the legal nouse to fathom this out….and of course, when they do, get the council to pay lots of £s for that information ….as it would be unfair to expect the Vales legal department to carry out something do tedious.
So much c*#p seems to happen to the town..
But when we look upwards (or, increasingly downwards) at those who should be grasping that thistle…they just shrug their shoulders.
Here we are, 5 years on from the last time we were all banging on about the exact same issues…and palms are in the air, shoulders are being shrugged…and the same old same old continues.
Can’t wait for the flowers this year…ooooh…I wonder if it’ll be pansys again!?
No problem astronaut
Community shop
Gazebo scheme supporting loads of events
Town portal
What on leaflets
Local excellence market
Mailings and other promotional materials
Good living event
Science festivl
Walk guides
Visitor maps
Supported loads of other stuff
I’m bored by the same old stuck record comments from the same few individuals using a variety of pseudonyms who do naff all for the town they are supposedly so concerned about, but have loads to say about the efforts of the people who do actually get of their backsides and try and do something to improve things.
Rant over
Ian, I want to have a weekly weekend market. Do you know what i need to do so I can make that happen?
PS – rants are a good thing.
Daniel – you would need to apply to the officer responsible for markets at the town council. she will be able to advise you on the detail of the process. There are obviously various indurances, risk assessments etc that you need to undertake but nothing unachievable, the main challenge is getting a good range of stallholders together.
Thanks again Ian.
Before putting my good idea to that particular council office worker…I’ll get working on finding out if people actually want a weekly weekend market….or if it’s just me!
Once I know whether there’s a demand for it, I am confident the rest will fall in to place.
I’ll report back….
LIz, (comment 7) its because people choose to get in their cars and go elsewhere that the interesting shops that we do have struggle to survive and many are forced to close, and then people moan that there are no nice shops.
We have some very nice shops indeed in Abingdon, that you wont find in Witney, or Didcot.
The grass may seem greener but people who visit Abingdon, and I meet a lot of them as Mayor, say what a lovely town Abingdon is and they mean the shops as well as our beautiful buidings and riverside, and some of these people are from Witney
In reply to Iain, post 20
Community shop – friends of Abingdon
Gazebo scheme supporting loads of events – accepted
Town portal – wasn’t this the town manager whilst working 1 day a week at the TC ?
What on leaflets – collating information given by others
Local excellence market – Although Chaps set up, don’t you use someone else to run these ?
Mailings and other promotional materials – I have never had any direct mailing through my door
Good living event – used outside company to run & where was it this year ?
Science festival – wasn’t this the previous chairman’s idea, which only came to work after he had finished ?
Walk guides – where can I find these ?
Visitor maps – how long did these take to do, 4 years if I remember correctly
Supported loads of other stuff – exactly, supported other stuff. So other events that were already in existence Chaps rolled in & look like they “saved the day” when actually all they did was get in the way.
I do hope all this wasted money by the councils is discussed ahead of the elections !
About £400,000 of tax payers money for this, well I suppose it’s done more than spend £1m on a cinema
Ill informed rubbish
No one commented on the NHS. There is a lot of privatisation happening in the NHS at the moment. No doubt MP’s are making the most of their lobbying interests for the private companies. How companies run to make the maximum profit for their shareholders could be more economic than the non profit making NHS I shall never understand. I have relations that remember life without the NHS. In very poor areas if you could not afford a doctor than your children or yourself just died. Doctors did not want to treat the poor they wanted their surgeries to be in the affluent areas. As we all know this Government is all for self interest and raking in as much profit as they can.
Iain, if you are so confident in choose Abingdon, I dare you to publish all 7 years accounts on the TC website for all to see
Abingdon needs to do more to get tourists here. It’s no good just having a website. Get out there and invite them. I go on a lot of coach tour holidays, both in this country and Europe. We visit the big, famous towns (as Oxford would be classed), but always have lunch stops, coffee stops etc in smaller but interesting towns nearby.
People can spend money in that time as well as enjoying the town. Group deals are sometimes negotiated with pubs and restaurants, there is time for shopping, sightseeing. Coach drivers/tour managers may be offered a free meal. Often we stay overnight in the smaller towns as they can be cheaper.
Somebody (Choose Abingdon? or whoever) should get out there and find the European, or even world wide travel/coach companies as well as British ones, sell Abingdon and make them want to come here.
Kelly…I heard that this exact idea had been proffered a few years ago. Seemed like a no-brainer. It makes you wonder why such easy gains aren’t implemented yesterday…. It is just one of many…
The ideas are many fold. It’s the implementation that appears the issue…
…right. Early days, but preliminary results show that:
80% of those asked said “yes” to a weekly weekend market.
Only 1 person said that they were unable to answer.
I’ll keep going….
Daniel – I have no doubt that there would be lots of support for a weekend market (although have reservations about it being every week as it would preclude other events on the Market Place and the variety they bring): the case for that was made several years ago and the (much maligned) Choose Abingdon went out to find traders to sell there. They found that all those who operate via theThames Valley Farmers Markets co-operative are already fully booked (as can be seen from the schedule on their website). However some months have a fifth Saturday so the traders are free and for the last three years or so Choose Abingdon has run the Local Excellence Markets on those dates.
It would be great to build on that base, so maybe a more productive route would be to research possible sources of traders?
Hi Hester, I disagree. I think that part of the problem is that no one is asking “the people” what they want. I would well imagine that getting to the point where the big Celebrity opens up the inaugural Great Abingdon-on-Thames Sunday market will require an almost insurmountable effort; however…if none of the residents want a Sunday market…because they are all going to the cinema in Didcot…it makes no difference if One Direction are cutting the ribbon…everyone’s gone in The Other Direction instead. We shouldn’t be ‘implementing stuff’…and then wondering why it doesn’t achieve results. Find out what people want….and supply it. Isn’t that “retail 1-0-1”?
Before I launch in to a rant about how I cannot believe that such an important, useful, productive, rejuvenating, central anchoring point for the whole Abingdon Revival could well be a widely renowned, excellent, weekly Sunday market…and why would we let things get in the way of such a good opportunity – what exactly happens on Sundays that a compromise can’t be found for such a relaunch of the Town….aren’t there people employed to undertake such mediations… And why would an infamous Sunday Market, attracting peple from miles around – making Abingdon a Go-To destinationon the second biggest retail/activity day of the year, preclude the use of the market square and the variety that it brings? And also…who thinks I’d be interested in using “Thames Valley Market Traders”!? We know they aren’t interested….surely…surely….there must…surely be other people who run markets….?
Before all that….personally….I’d be finding out if there is actually a want, a desire for a Sunday market…..and all that it might bring. The market of course just being the lynch-pin in the Abingdon Revival campaign. But maybe it is just me…. What do I know…. Far more erudite people than me are actually paid to do such things….and they haven’t thought of any of this….so, it must just be me after all….
Janet, Was the petition connected to the NHA Party, (Political Party standing in Oxford West and Abingdon)??.
In answer to ColinB, No, 38 degrees, the instigator of the petition to save the NHS, are apolitical. I just happened to have a flyer supporting Dr.Helen Salisbury, NHAP candidate for the forthcoming election, in my hand when the photograph was taken. Can’t think how it got there?
Don’t disagree with any of that Daniel – thought I was offering a constructive comment, but clearly that’s not how it came across. Also I had thought you meant Saturday. Good luck with your efforts – I’ll go back to my knitting!
…no, don’t worry… it did come accross as constructive. I just disagree with the ‘way round of doing things’.. To my mind, putting the horse before the cart makes a lot more sense….but it is only my opinion. The beauty of opinions is that they can be changed.
But yes, I shoudl have been clearer…definately on a Sunday…it is such a big day for people to shop/go out/head somewhere…it needs capitalising on….but all this would come out in the “Abingdon Revival Project”, where a multifaceted approach to Market Town revival would be looked in to – by consultants of course. Once we have first established whether, even in principle, it is what people want of ocurse (again, by asking consultants to…consult).
Why doesn’t Abingdon promote it’s MG heritage as much as it should?? Do people not realise how much of a following, (especially USA) that the Factory has. My mother, many years ago worked for the Tourist Info and she was amazed at how many and at how annoyed or let down people were when they were told there was nothing here for them. What we have now is hardly good enough!
Daniel … ?
It’s not easy … it’s just that amateur council scout-masters imagineering solutions doesn’t wash and doesn’t convince.
They’re not going to ‘get you’ … especially when you’re being so oblique.
Keep it simple.
CHAPs is dead.
The Chamber of Commerce has run some local excellence markets and other events in the square. It also runs the Abingdon Extravaganza which is a huge success.
Yes, landlords choose who to rent shops to, not the council. I run a business that falls into the A2 planning category (professional and financial services) and none of the landlords in Abingdon centre with empty A1 space to let are willing to rent to me despite the planning department seeing no detriment in such a change.
The fact is that small shops struggle to survive in Abingdon and unless landlords start to think more flexibly there will be a lot of empty shops for a good while to come.
Apparently a frozen yogurt bar is coming to town … on the corner where Hadleighs / Thai supermarket once was.
Interesting 🙂
Fanrastic! I wish them well, and very much hope they are successfully.
I really do hope that they have done their research, and they know that there is a demand in Abingdon for their product – I don’t want to get the blame again for not using shops that I don’t want to use!
jb – comment 38 – there is an MG car club based in Cemetary Road. It does much to propmote our MG heritage and has visiting enthusiasts from all over the world, I believe.
There is an MG Memorial garden on the corner of Spring Road and Marcham Road. its official opening, last year was featured in the local press.
Our County Hall Museum has an MG car on display and often runs special exhibitions.
That is an interesting reply Angela, and it us good to know those MG related things. However…in answer to the sentiment expressed in post #38, do you agree that not enough is done to promote the towns MG heritage, or do you think it is adequate (or more so)?
Does the perception….live up to the reality? And how do you ensure marriage between the two?
Personally….I would have thought the MG heritage could be made more of.
I am just curious as to what people think things are like….and what things are actually like. And who thinks things are like what?
I live near to the MG Car Club premises and see many visitors coming to look. Lots from abroad. I hope that none of them decide to make their way through the little path which cuts through to Colwell Drive. If they do, they will receive a disappointing impression of Abingdon as they plough their way through the mounds of rubbish and food debris left by customers of the Macdonalds ‘open all hours’ premises.
But to get back to the thread. In addition to the museum, garden etc there are also the wonderful displays of vintage MG cars which appear regularly at the rallies in the Market Place.
Daniel, of course it depends very much on your perspective. I’m sure the MG enthusiast will say it’s not enough. I’m interested but not an enthusiast. There’s enough for me, and a good variety over the year.
It would be interesting to hear what others think, and what more anyone feels should be done and by who.
Angela – there could maybe be a bit more on the town portal – there are a couple of sentences in the “Abingdon Story” article but that’s about it – there could be Someting in the “places to visit” section and perhaps something in the “History” section – so far that has focused mainly on older history but there is no reason not to include 20th century history. There is plenty of material available to use.
Maybe someone could do a “mystery shopper” visit to the Information Office to see what they say when asked?
No-one is privatising the NHS…
All this rubbish about privatisation of the NHS is just anti-Conservative rhetoric