It was colder today. There was even a little snow early on. The traffic was moving very slow this morning through town. One lady told me it took an hour to get from Caldecott Road to Trinity Fair.
Pandora, the new jewelery shop, has opened in time for Christmas.
Contractors have been busy putting up Christmas Lights, and decorating the tree, in time for next weekend’s Christmas extravaganza.
The contractors are cutting it much finer than previous years.
Paddington Bear will be coming for the Christmas Extravaganza, next Saturday, and there are pictures of his marmalade sandwiches in shop windows. (Find as many as you can before 28th November to get the chance to join Paddington and switch on the lights. Entry form from the Chamber of Commerce Extravaganza page .)
What a lovely idea…thank you for letting us know backstreeter – and not keeping it under your hat!
Yesterday’s traffic around lunch time was horrendous through Abingdon.
It was gridlocked down Wilsham Road, St. Helens Warf, the High Street, Stratton Way, Ock Street and Bath Street.
There was no other way through and I was wondering if something was going on in the town?
I noticed there was a broken down bus on Stratton Way at about 10.30 am. Maybe that was part of the traffic problem?
Sasha, traffic is bad in town now that even if we had an M&S in the precinct giving away free fuel it wouldn’t do any good because the only people who can shop in town are those who can walk to it, I’m hoping the new BID team will
Make tackling the problem their first priority !
I had a wry smile when I read the Herald letters page last week as there were people there complaining about how awful the traffic is in Didcot – and has anyone tried getting in or out of Oxford recently?
Abingdon is not unique in having traffic problems!
We’re a market town with medieval road layout – theres a limit to what can be done short of a second river crossing.
Personally, i hope the BID focuses on things it can actually fix.
Iain a second river crossing was a pre requisite of Abits, it should have been place before the new traffic layout was installed and while I agree there is only so much that can be done without substantial work we never had these jams pre Abits, each day from 2,30 the culham rd is queued back almost to the culham turn, that didn’t happen pre Abits, ditto Drayton road queue past Preston rd, there are several modifications that can be done to improve things, not least to scrap the Scoots software system the lights operate on and instal one that’s appropriate !
I dont think tweaks will make much difference – i suspect changing the traffic lights will just cost another lot of money and then create a different set of problems – for example has anyone noticed any positive impact from the new traffic light layout at the bottom of spring road?
Southern crossing is a different thing and i’d be very supportive if money can be found to make that happen – my suspicion is that would only come with extra housing though
Entry forms to enter our Paddington Bear competition are available to download on the Chamber website, or you can pick up / drop off a form at Added Ingredients & Simon’s News. For up to the minute information about the Extravaganza, please like us at http://www.facebook.com/abingdonxmas
You surely have to conceed that changing/removing the whole software package that manages ALL of the traffic through town (a choice NOT recommended by the expensive consultants I believe, yet pressed on with by The Council) is substantially more than ‘a tweak’….
Lest we forget…whilst the Councils were busy simultaneously patting themselves on the back for AbITs and a job well done, they were also telling us “he said, she said” and apportioning blame to each other, as the Town ground to a halt.
There was even an opportunity to reverse ABits…yet was missed.
It wasn’t a councillor, it wasn’t The Council, it wasn’t an erudite council officer….it was a member of the public who got the system moving and as “good” as it is now; sorting light timings, and phasing etc – which is a darn site better than the mess we received and had accepted on our behalf.
Not so soon after “tweaks” and opportunities to help the traffic have also been missed by council one-upmanship, rather than a concerted effort to resolve it or alleviate issues….the ‘jet lane’ opposite MacDonald’s …. The use of land (now MG garden) to help double roundabouts…all opportunities missed. So says a bloke down the pub, at least.
As for the new crossings at the double roundabouts….I asked OCC for a copy of the independent traffic consultants report about the crossing placements (…”queues of no more than 5 cars on Drayton Rd at peak times…”), I think it is ‘The Glanville Report”?…it is a publically available document that no one seems to be able to find (apparently it was a agenda addenda of the OCC Delegated Decisions Environment meeting 24 March 2014, which supposedly can be accessed through the OCC website….but NOT even an OCC officer can find it!), I was uncerimoniously told …if I wanted it, ask via an FOI request!
The use of consultants is fine…but what are the consequences, for them, if they are wrong? And…when our glorious leaders listen to those consultants…and they are wrong…what then!?
It should be, absolutely, at the very tippy tippy top of the Councils agenda, those interested in transport at least, as to why no bridge, as a defining part of AbITs wasn’t implemented…and continues not to be. The fact it is ‘old news’ doesn’t mean it isn’t relevant, isn’t pertinent, isn’t urgent, or is forgotten about.
A fully paid for solution to complete the ring road south of the town linking the A34 to the south and across to Culham, has been suggested… in principle at least…but that has also been ignored.
But yes…great we have Pandora here…no doubt we’ll be told this is the diamond interchange we’ve all been waiting for?
And it’s not just the shopkeepers that have suffered because of Abits, the people of South Abingdon have been hardest hit? Oxford bus company and Stagecoach refuse to run buses services starting from the south . I,e Drayton road, because of the unpredictability of traffic would impact on a regular timetable, which in turn means people there either have to walk into town or drive adding to the already gridlocked Drayton rd, Ock St and West Saint Helens, Remember too that by leaving the stable door open to developers of “Morland Green” has all by ruined any chance of a second river crossing because they’re building 170 houses in its path! Iain, you ask how the
New layout is at Ock St? Dreadful is the answer, with no queuing area for the lights by the White Horse for traffic entering Oak St leaves the entire junction gridlocked , if the nincompoop who designed this thought it necessary to move the Marcham rd lights further away from the junction who could justify sighting the Ock St ones virtually on top of it? At the very least the Ock St set should
Be peak time only ?
Can I remind you gentlemen that we have not yet experienced the effect of the 250 extra cars coming out of the Morland Gardens development along the Drayton Road. To say nothing of the extra traffic generated by the housing developments in Drayton itself.
Indeed Janet that’s why I’m pining hope on the BID team to put the subject back on everyone’s agenda, they are the only independent body with any teeth we have !
Did I hear a rumour that a landowner on the margins of the Morland Gardens development has refused access onto his land for the digging of sewage and drainage systems – with the result that the work has ground to a halt?
Well, I never… How did that get overlooked by the planning enquiries?
Or is it just another rumour? I would love to know!
Last I heard the work stopped because the developer didn’t yet have the permission to actually start.
They started regardless.
To just clarify …a developer started building houses, without permission.
That is quite a substantial “thing”, isn’t it?
Say it slowly, if it helps….”… a developer started building house – digging holes, moving earth, chopping trees etc….without permission….”
Now for the worrying bit.
This work was not stopped because of an on the ball planning officer. Or stopped because a councillor saw.
It was merely an astute member of the public who noticed that they had started without permission, and so let the planning department know. The people who are employed, by us, to be aware of all of this…had no idea.
Gawd bless ’em. Those crazy planners…they must have been doing something else ‘plannery’…rather than making sure planning constraints and permissions were being adhered to. I wonder what?
No idea about the access for drainage…but, I am fairly sure if there was an oversight to be had…I’d know whose oversight it’d be!!
What are the legal consequences for the developer, if what Daniel has heard is correct? What penalty clauses do the planners put into the permssions they give?
I am thinking about Cranberry-on-Thames and the Morland Gardens developments. A farmer who built a house without planning permission was recently ordered by an Appeal Court decision to demolish the building…
Ppjs…unfortunately there will be little or no consequences. An example where the regulatory power has zero guts or teeth is (apologies to banf on about it) is 65 Oxford Rd. There was “substantial evidence of contravention of planning regulations”, regarding the trees, yet the planners chose, chose not to take action. It wasn’t in the public interest to pursue it, they said…
Likewise I’d imagine there’ll be little or no consequences in this instance. But woe betide anyone who has a window 5cm too big on their granny annex….
Did we really want PANDORA? in the Precinct
Well said Daniel.
On another note I don’t recall a huge traffic problem when the centre of Abingdon was all one-way. It seemed to move just fine. Allowing cars to go the ‘wrong way’ on Stratton Way hasn’t helped.
At least let cars turn right into Bath Street as this will reduce the numbers on Ock Street.
Lady, why not? It’s a good addition and considering the fact that it’s owned and run by a very good established independent jeweller is a good indicator that confidence is returning to the towns businesses, besides with only Samuals and Gatwoods ( the later also owners of the new Pandora) to choose from gives all more choice,
By the way I see there’s a new planning application in to convert the old Stroll in shop to a cafe !
9.15 am and the traffic queue on the Drayton Road stretches to Preston Road. Who was the idiot who said the new traffic lights on Ock Street and Marcham Road would mean there would never be more than 5 cars queuing on Drayton Road? Can we all bombard him with ‘comments’?
Kelly, apologies to repeat myself from above, but….
….I asked OCC for a copy of the independent traffic consultants report about the crossing placements (…”queues of no more than 5 cars on Drayton Rd at peak times…”), I think it is ‘The Glanville Report”?…it is a publically available document that no one seems to be able to find (apparently it was a agenda addenda of the OCC Delegated Decisions Environment meeting 24 March 2014, which supposedly can be accessed through the OCC website….but NOT even an OCC officer can find it!), I was uncerimoniously told …if I wanted it, ask via an FOI request!
It is very easy, apparently, to make an FOI request, so you and/or I could do it; and AbingdonFirst has also been very successful in getting information from FOI requests…perhaps they will pick up this issue too?
I think the annoying electorate that we are are entitled to know what the penalties and consequences are for a consultant who “gets it wrong”. For the record….I could get it wrong, but for half the price…if anyone wants to save some money!!?
And, equally pertinent, our councillors ‘listen’ to officers, who advised them based on ‘listening’ to consultants that our cash is spent on. If the consultants are wrong….how foes that look for the council officer and what us the upshit if that ill decision…and it then follows what the upshot is for the council that listened to that officer…
From what we see…the advice and suggestions can provide the polar opposite of what we want, need or deserve…the upsot is the same…nothing happens. We just get lumbered with the bad decision.
If I make bad decisions at work….I’ll get the sack.
We can ALL make our FOI request from here:
https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request/the-freedom-of-information-act
This article is about to drop off the front page of this blog…
You’ll hear the collective sigh of relief as we all forget about these issues….
We have now submitted a FoI on this subject.
“Could we please have a copy of the independent traffic consultants report about the crossing placements on Marcham Rd, Ock Street, (…”queues of no more than 5 cars on Drayton Rd at peak times…”), Possibly the “Glanville Report”?
We understand that there is an agenda addendum on the OCC Delegated Decisions Environment meeting 24 March 2014.
If this “traffic easing” measure is found to be utterly useless and not fulfilling the quoted “No more than 5 cars queing on the Drayton Rd at peak times”, will something be put in place to prevent the developers building extra housing as the “survey” and results were obviously flawed?
Thank you “
Goodness….someone is reading this, how marvellous…AbingdonFirst has now put in an FOI on the Marcham Rd crossings!
At least they are doing something to seek the answers… Well done ladies!
I’ll keep an eye out on your site and look forward to the reply!!