Thanks to Elizabeth for noticing this one…
There were trees in Roysse Court last week.
They are gone this weekend – part of the town council tidying up the area to give it a new look.
Next to go is likely to be the fountain installed by the Cowley Concrete Company. The company manufactured concrete-framed buildings, bridge sections, bricks and even fountains, and traded in Abingdon from the 1920s to the 1960s.
I was always impressed with the products of the Cowley Concrete Company, whose imitation Stonefield Slates were impressive in quality and appearance.
Why should this fountain be removed? Who has decided it must go? What is its history and is it just going because le Corbusier is going out of fashion?
And why did the trees go?
Vandalism! In the heart of Abingdon. Who is the demented civil servant that authorized this outrageous destruction?
As to the Cowley Concrete Company’s fountain,
no doubt the morons in charge of its ‘likely’ destruction are unconcerned that the founder of the company was one of the towering strengths of the town more than 60 years ago. H. G. Mullard became a borough councillor in 1945, mayor between 1951 & 1953, and is stated to have been “Christ’s Hospital’s greatest modern benefactor”.
http://www.ch-of-abingdon.org/historical-figures
This is too much to credit!
Who decided this? Can I chop down or remove everything I don’t like?
I would blame Prince Charles, but he likes trees…
Happy Easter!
Paul – the trees were surveyed and one was dying and two were in poor condition. Obviously trees have different expected lifespans and these had come to the end of theirs. There will be replacements although i cant remember the details of exactly what, where and when.
The decision to remove the fountain (which doesnt work and has been used for many years as a glorified planter) was a decision (unanimous i think) of full council. I’m afraid that even if it once looked grand and imposing it doesn’t any more.
I don’t see why the fountain has to go either, surely in this day and age it could be inexpensively given life again or retained in its present use. In fact I’d gladly give £50 towards a restoration fund just to stop its removal.
…the four trees on the market square cost (us) £18000….has the replacement tree for here been fully costed yet…or is it being looked at by consultants first?
Did nobody think to repair the fountain, which was a good piece of civic street art?
Glad to hear the trees will be replaced.
Daniel – the figure you quote includes allocations of fixed costs – the trees cost nothing like that. The accounting treatment is to do with the stipulations of the grant which partially funded them.
I dont know about the fountain repairs paul – i think we’re talking ancient memory since it last worked
…do you know what the fixed costs will be for THIS tree? 😉
Funny never “noticed” the fountain before
‘FIxed costs’ … you couldn’t make it up … could you?
It’s your figure daniel – not mine – i’m just trying to explain so that people dont think the council is laying out £18k of their money for a few trees which it is not.
Iain….I’m not one to believe everything I read on the internet…and I am well aware how a story can become skewed in ANY direction, depending upon your point of view; and I appreciate where you are coming from.
Having said that, this (below) does suggest that rather a lot of money was either spent on trees….or the replacement of trees….
http://m.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2316140.print/
Of course, all water under the bridge…but I guess it’ll be interesting to see how lovely the new tree is, which I don’t doubtvwill be lovely (and no doubt the flowers too!)…and how much it, and the associated costs turn out to be.
I understood that the fountain cannot be restored to actually have water in it due to the elf n safety brigade. Don’t see why it can’t stay in some form.
The destruction of all the trees in the market place was pure vandalism.
Sounds like some Jobsworth’s easy-out and I doubt the H&S Inspectorate would back that one. Roysse Court is not an Industrial site so what does it have to do with elfansaftee ? Are there not some rather larger ponds in our Capital City ? The only Lifeguards I have seen in London are those on Royal protection duty.
If you stick your head in a pond of water (running or not) you are likely to stop breathing – gosh ! What’s wrong with Darwinian Selection and Common Sense ?
Daniel – as you can see from the date of the article this is way before my time as a councillor so i have no axe to grind, but the figure is totally misleading per my earlier comment.
The fountain decision is nothig to do with health and safety. It’s not had water in for the twenty years i’ve lived here.
Iain, thanks…and you are right….figures can often be misleading. Being a Taurus, I am of course very stubborn, so now….as a point of principle, it’ll be interesting to find out how much it actually costs to replace the tree that has gone from here. I estimate about £100 for a decent sized tree. £20 on some “buy two for the price of three” bags of decent soil…a couple handfuls of grow more, and a morning for two blokes on minimum wage to actually plant it. I’m hedging my bets (plant pun fully intended) on the total and full price coming in at less than £500…..
See…who said I can’t be optimistic!?
Well the swimming pool campaign comes to an end tomorrow so I suppose we could campaign for the fountain as a substitute for an outdoor pool. In fact why didn’t we think of that?
Seriously though, whether or not it was a decision of the full council (When? What papers were presented?) this should be put to the public.
The schools should be consulted to see if they would prefer to replace it with a restaurant with WiFi. Or might it be the centre point of an adventure playground?
On a previous occasion it was proposed by the District Council to replace the outdoor pool with an “adult water feature”. Might this be the occasion to imitate the well-known fountain in Brussels?
That would surely increase the footfall in Abingdon.
Whilst engaging the consultants it would be a good idea to purge the area of beer cans and cigarette butts. It was looking thoroughly disgusting on Easter Sunday afternoon.
Ian you have no more common sense than a snail, it beggars belief that you put yourself up for re election while at the same time you and sandy chose to de select a long time party member?
Well, let’s just remove every tree in Abingdon shall we? I feel like Dogmatix from Asterix. If only I had a magic potion to grow them back again… 🙁
What are you talking about steve?
The trees are dead and the fountain is a 70s concrete mould (read monstrosity) – changing things seems like a good option to me.
I agree with Naomi.First The Old Gaol willows,now this.Why not cut down all the public view trees? could be a real cost saving Council cutback!
The fountain must have been working in about 1955 i can recall a photo of myself by it, I must have been about four years old, it is a master piece of work and should be saved
Sadly I think they were demolishing it today.
If true, that means we are wasting time discussing things like this here. It should have been possible to stop it.
Vandalism of this type should be banned during an election campaign,
The recent tree felling problem isn’t confined to Abingdon, the magnificent trees in Castle street, Oxford, between the Westgate and the Council Offices were felled today (Sunday).
A close look at the wood whilst passing by showed no internal decay so the question is – WHY ??