Thanks to a kind hand for writing and sending me this report
There was a meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee of Abingdon Town Council this evening. 16 members of the public were present. Four had registered a wish to speak and one of them reminded those present that we were only able to do so thanks to the efforts of former Councillor Janet Morgan, who had sadly died a few days ago. In the 1990s she had persuaded the Town and District Councils to introduce rules to allow this, which was unusual in local government at that time.The picture taken in 2011 shows her being made a Freeman of the town.
One speaker made a strong statement in favour of the planned lift in the old part of the Guildhall. The others were more concerned with the uncertainty over the future of the Abbey Hall and the need to fill the “dark hole” caused by the absence of any town centre venue for entertainment and leisure activities. 1445 people have now signed the online petition about this, and many others have signed the offline petition. Questions were asked about the plans for the Hall, the costs of the alterations to the historic parts of the complex and whether the Council have taken professional advice on ways of improving the accessibility of the building without destroying its historic features: answers weren’t forthcoming on the night but we were told that the Committee would be discussing them in confidential session later in the evening and replies would be sent after that. There is also likely to be a Press Release in the next few days about the future of the Abbey Hall.
The Committee then went in to a lengthy wrangle about the proposals for the former South Abingdon Childrens Centre. An impasse had arisen whereby both the Town and County Councils had agreed funding, but neither would enter a formal commitment quite yet.
It seems to be the council live in state of paralysis with no one having the capacity to grasp the nettle and get on and do something. We the public, who I think the council are suppose to actually serve, correct me if I’m wrong here, are left with a town that, Abbey Meadow aside, seems to be crumbling. The years of neglect by the council that seem to have no clear vision for the town now really do start to show, and it’s a real shame for such a potentially attractive, potentially vibrant little riverside town.
The very notion that there’s a secret meeting about the future of a public building is unfathomable.
It is part of the reason the Town is in the crisis it is.
Daniel – Indeed, it stinks. Almost as if the council is some secret society or something. We want transparency and truth not smoke and mirrors.
I agree. It’s fair enough for them to discuss stuff in confidence if they are dealing with commercial negotiations or with staffing issues, but it’s difficult to see why they couldn’t discuss most of the points raised at the meeting in open forum.
Cllr Garrett wrote to me on 20th September when I raised some of the issues outlined above with him directly. He didnt answer at all but promised a press release ‘in a few days’. Well here we are two weeks later and still none the wiser.
Just checked the TC website to see if the press release was out – got quite excited for a minute when I saw the latest one is called “Comic Capers” but it appears that is about something else…