School Holidays are here and for those families who have not gone away already, in the first week, there was a glorious first Sunday on the Abingdon Riviera (Abbey Meadows). A new mobile coffee stall appeared and will be there through the holidays.
The Abbey Meadows has an open air pool and a playground and a sprayground so it is the place to be on such a day. Coseners House had a party going and the music meant we were all part of the party.
Summer can’t get much better than lounging beside the boat after a day winding up or down the River Thames.
The Salter’s Steamer from Oxford to Abingdon now goes under the bridge at Abingdon …
makes a turn by St Helen’s Wharf, then parks on their own quayside at the Abingdon Bridge Marine.
Idyllic photographs, backstreeter.
Meanwhile, The Vale is busily messing up their fiefdom (as they see it). See this:
http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/13466018.Residents_claim_housebuilder_has_breached_planning_rules/?ref=mr&lp=7
which, along with the very recent Tilsley Park story, disappeared from the front (internet) page of the local media very quickly.
I guess you’ve gotta be up pretty early in the morning, which I am, to catch any stories in anyway critical of The Vale Planning Dept., who, surely, are not exerting any pressure on the incorruptible ladies and gentlemen of The Press to suppress such (recently banner-headline) stories.
Any suggestion of such activity would cast all involved in a very poor light.
What a great description, The Abingdon Riviera! The Abbey Meadows and the whole beautiful riverside area is one of the best reasons for living in Abingdon. Thankyou Backstreeter forconsistently highlighting all that is best and interesting in Abingdon – despite all the negatives that the Comments so often and rightly call our attention to
Word on the street is staff at Poundland have been told the store is closing? Super drug are moving into the vacant new build unit next to New Look? That will mean all the big units at the end of the precinct , oops Bury St will be empty? New M&S?
Wonderful photos of the Riviera! Wish I was there, rather than at my desk at work!
What fantastic pictures – wouldn’t it be good if those in the Vale and TC who are responsible for promoting our town to tourists could pick up blog items like these and make use of them…
I also wonder how many of our own residents know just how great our riverside can be on days like this?
Hester…IS there anyone at either of those councils responsible for tourism? I had always assumed their wasn’t!?
The riverside is always interesting; I regularly walk to Sutton Courtenay and back and enjoy the extraordinary freedom of being able to do so.
Thanks for the photos, Backstreeter!
Well done to the mobile coffee chap! Another opportunity that could be really well used – me and my mummy friends will be there! PS Daniel – I really love reading your comments. Please keep going!
Daniel. The Choose Abingdon Partnership took on the mantle of promoting tourism, they spent thousands and thousands on consultants, producing tourist D V D’s etc , I seem to remember at one point the Vale (or Tc) shifted their tourism efforts to Witney or Faringdon councils? Hester, you were on the partnership, perhaps you could enlighten us?
REALLY !#?@?!#?
Captain K – as I understand it, responsibility for tourism is and always has been primarily the responsibility of the Vale who have changed the way they do it several times in recent years (yes, at one stage they outsourced some of it to a Faringdon-based outfit, but that didn’t last long). But because of the wide area they cover, Abingdon is only one of many places they promote.
The Town Council is responsible for the Visitor Information Centre and, as Daniel appreciates so much, making the
place look nice with flowers etc! They also have the Abingdon town website which should be what people find when they Google Abingdon so it is important that it
presents an attractive and informative offering for potential visitors and local residents alike.
Choose Abingdon , as I think you know, only had one part-time employee, with an extremely wide spread of activity to cover, so was hardly in a position to take on responsibility for a whole area such as this! They did deliver some small projects themselves and in relation to tourism this included the Town Maps, Walks Leaflets and the promotional videos you refer to. I think the consultancy you mention must be
the package of work which they commissioned to produce baseline market research data on what visitors like or don’t
like about Abingdon, how they heard about us, what would make them come back etc etc. This provided information
which enables those who are deciding how to invest public funds to make evidence-based decisions.
Just to bring this back to the origin of this thread – had ChAP continued, the next major project they had wanted to promote, in collaboration with the relevant authorities, was based around the the riverside: it is to be hoped that others will carry that forward.
Had a coffee at the ‘pop up’ coffee stall today. Great coffee and a really nice guy running the stall. It was nice to be able to sit with a drink and look out over the river. Hope people support this venture. He plans to be there every day ( by the kiosk).
Also had a look at the edible garden planted by Carbon Cutters. Great idea. It is good that we have keen people like Carbon Cutters and Friends of Abingdon who work so hard to make the town look good. Not forgetting about all the other people and groups, voluntary or otherwise, who work on the town’s behalf.
Well said Cassandra. Abingdon has an amazing number of good people who do a lot for the town and its residents.
Hester, “Chaps had one part time employee” on £28 k a year plus expenses !! I seem to recal on one yea of Chaps accounts stating the part time employees expenses were almost £6k ! Thus making this part time job a whopping £35 k a year part time job on the council !!
Captains, Are you sure the £6k was personal expenses and not expenditure needed to do the job or deliver a project?