Bringing together Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths – STEAM, there is STEAM powered Big Draw event with local schools exhibiting at 35 Ock Street. There are lots of colourful pictures in the cafe area …
and a Jurassic theme in the front room with pictures drawn at Oxford University Museum.
Outside the A B C wheelbarrow has been busy carrying away loads of leaves so that you don’t slip on the way in.
We are going backwards as regards our standard of living. OCC plan to close the health and wellbeing centre in Abingdon. The Audlett Drive centre is one of 22 building-based daytime centres for the elderly and disabled that the council is set to replace with a community support service, saving between £2.4m and £3.4m. Elderly people meet at the centre and are distressed at the proposed closure. We are told that there will be community care measures. We all know that this means nothing as per mental health community care. Perhaps some of the millions sent abroad could be redirected to services here. Nicola Blackwood our MP voted for cuts to council budgets so I am led to believe. It is the systematic rape of services in this country.
Janet – It would indeed seem that Nicola just sails the smoothest waters and tows the party line, apparently not fighting for Abingdon or her constituents, subservient, unfortunately this and many other things could make for a protest vote at the next election, I suggest she ups her game unless she wants out. Either way we will lose these services and once lost I fear they will never return.
Much as I like the proposed revamp of Abbey Meadows I don’t think it is a priority and, in the current cash-strapped state of the Council and Vale, could and should be postponed in favour of more pressing needs such as Janet details above.
I don’t think it will attact people from out of Abingdon as driving and parking in town is just too stressful. The play facilities as they are seem to be adequate, well-used and enjoyed in summer so is such a dramatic change necessary ?
Sorry to sound like a kill joy; in the best of all possible worlds both would be possible but we don’t live in such a world at the moment and it is not likely to get much better financially for the forseeable futute.
Talking of being a kill joy…
When has Nicola Blackwood ever actually done anything other than tow the party line ?
She know’s which side her bread is buttered, and is lining herself up for a life long career in politics.
She got in a small majority ( which to my regret I added to, but only the once ), on the back of similar disenchant with the previous lib dem enbcumbant.
She achieved pretty much nothing in her first term, other than a few local photo shoots where she pulled her ‘concerned face’, and said a few meaningless platitudes about how something must be done.
Lodgehill Interchange being a prime example.
Lots of words, heck she was even going to ‘raise it’ with the then roads and treasury ministers..
Of course that really worked, because we still have no realistic prospect of it being built,and instead we have the green belt being ripped up to proved more ‘not’ affordable housing, no infrastructure to support them, and a park and ride so that OCC can sell off their park and ride for more ‘not affordable’ housing.
She then got re-elected with a large majority, (not me this time..), not on the back of her performance, but on the fear that the lib dems were ready to jump into bed with Labour and the SNP in order to hold onto power.
Sadly, both the lib dems and labour are now unelectable, so there is no realistic chance that we are getting rid of Nicola until she decides to move on. And I’d say that gravy train is likely to run for a long time yet.
There’s no incentive for her to rock the boat, or push for anything for Abingdon beyond ‘raising it to the minister’ and a few more ‘concerned face’ photshoots.
She knows she’s not going anywhere, and as long as she keeps her head down, sits on various ‘talking shop’ committees, and tows the line, then she’ll be rewarded with a ministers position before to long.
Why risk that by opposing government policy, however wrong or unjust.
It’s all rather depressing really, we are very poorly served by our elected and non elected representatives.
But then I guess we knew that already, and get a healthy reminder every time we are stuck in a jam on the Drayton road, (that must be imaginary, because Nimmo insisted adding a set of traffic lights was going to stop that).
apologies for the rant, its that kind of day, still I’m sure the xmas lights are going to look nice 🙂
Lyle – I couldn’t agree more… and the Christmas lights they’ll look ‘pants’ (as mentioned earlier).
I have just learnt that the hostels for the homeless, Simon House in Oxford and Julian House in Abingdon are to have their grants withdrawn by the Council. Just part of the war against the vulnerable and disabled that the Government are waging. A report found that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The Government gives millions away to other countries whilst cutting our services.
Janet – Indeed where are Abingdon’s homeless? Since that trouble in the Abbey grounds I’ve not seen any, are they being ‘moved on’ John Rambo style because they spoil the look of the place?
Nicola will always get my vote.
Without her considerable help I would not have succeeded against an unjust and unfair decision of Oxfordshire’s Blue Badge Team, which greatly effected my quality of life. Thank you Nicola.
Peter Del..yes and she will always get mine….here we go again “knock Nicola” it does not take long until we are back on the same negative subject
The homeless are still here ! In the rookery opposite the anchor pub are a few tents that have been there for sometime and quite a few of the boats moored in abingdon a regularly ” used ” as ad hoc accommodation, for sure there are those who chose to live like that, but worryingly are those who slip through the net ( wot net?)
As for Nicola B? That’s a subjective subject, there are many of whom will say she has done a good job for them, personally, but those cases never reach the public domain and as such she gets little or no kudos because no-one knows about it, on the other hand things that affect the masses, such as a diamond at lodge hill, she will never achieve any success because austerity deems no money available!
So, we’ve heard from Janet about cuts here and there ( rightly so) but I think the time has come for all of us to pay up and look big! Put everyone’s council tax up by £20 a year ( and make sure the mayor of Oxfird pays his outstanding £900 debt) and let’s have councils that have the funds to deliver services we deserve !
Ck2 – Glad you mentioned the unpaid Council Tax, he wasn’t the only one either but did hold the highest position. £20pa more… would that do it? I dread to say it but perhaps 2 or 3 times that might be more the figure.
Thanks for that Badger. Just been reading the Ox Mail on line and they report New River Capital ( lease holders of our precinct) have announced a £60 million refurb for Cowley Centre! Yet again we’re the bridesmaid !
Toe the line?
ppjs – Well done and thanks, you are indeed correct, I’ve learnt something new today, for some reason I’d always known it as tow.
This evening there is a plane droning back and forth over the town making repeated passes east-west-east-west, G-JPEG belongs to this bunch http://www.apemltd.co.uk/service/our-aircraft/ anyone know what kind of survey we are being subjected to?
Badger – I think it’s to do with runners getting their toes to the starting line.
Are we being Google-Earthed?
ppjs – I did wonder about Google Earth or similar but… in the dark? One of the things that company that the plane belongs to is laser topographical surveys so I guess it was one of those being done but why and for whom? I used a website called flight radar 24 to ID the plane and have a screen grab (albeit ultra-low res) of its repeated back and forth track over about 2 hours. Just thought I’d ask on here in case anyone knew what was really going on.
Badger, taken from the companies web site ” APEM is Europes leading independent environmental consultancy ( sorry Daniel) specialising in freshwater and marine ecology and Aries surveys”!
Guess the E A are spending more of our money on tirying to justify spending millions on a flood elevation scheme that everyone knows won’t work instead of simple dredging that has proven to work for generations?
Bet they were paying particular attention to Marcham Common ? ( that’s the land to the west of the A34 between the allotments and Marcham) where they plan to build a holding damn and lake for the river Ock when it floods, I doubt anyone has told them they’re now building new homes there !
Ck2 – They seem to have surveyed an oblong area bounded roughly by Clifton Hampden, Drayton, Frilford and Wooton. I did wonder about hydro/topographic surveying but surely that’s been done already several times for EA’s inaccurate flood map and then again later for the more accurate more insurance friendly but still inaccurate version.
Apology accepted captain, although I’m still not reading having been bullied in to submission by DM.