Vale of White Horse District Council (VWHDC) has announced a regeneration review for central Abingdon to identify realistic options for three properties the council owns in the town centre:
* the Charter area and car park
* Abbey House
* Upper Reaches Hotel.
They are talking with businesses and community groups this spring. They will do a survey and town centre event for the public in the summer. A report, to identify what future improvements are needed, will be published later this year. This will happen alongside the development of the Neighbourhood Plan which is also looking at the future of central Abingdon.
Currently The Charter car park is subject to urgent and long-term repairs as the upper floors are currently closed. Abbey House is currently being leased by Oxfordshire County Council for office space. The Upper Reaches Hotel is on a very long lease to a third party and has been closed for a number of years.
How many consultations is that now?
I was told that the Vale do not want to spend money on the repairs to the Multi Story Car park as it would only be for the short term. No Survey has even been done to see what repairs need doing. It is very difficult to park in Abingdon now at times. The only place to park is in Waitrose.
Good to hear there is some urgency to this regeneration….
According to Councillor Andy Crawford, quoted in the Abingdon Herald today, this regeneration will happen “ in the future when an opportunity presents itself “
https://www.heraldseries.co.uk/news/19980666.abingdon-town-centre-brighter-future-regeneration-project/
What kind of opportunity are we waiting for ? How far in the future ? No point in employing further consultants to tell us again what we have been told before.
Of course there is. Consultants are entitled to make as much money as possible, like the rest of us. There’s a cost of living crisis you know…and those consultants need to make ends meet somehow.
I now self identify as a Consultant’s Consultant. If there are any Consultant’s out there, worrying about making ends meet, they can hire me as a Consultant to advise them how best to ramp up their Consultancy fees.
As with all consultants Julian’s consultancy is under no obligation to provide any useful, practical, providable answers…and, any suggestions that ARE implemented carry no guarantee of ever achieving any kind of success…such is the way with “Con-sultants”. Therefore, I will also offer my consultancy in to this mix, and I can guarantee that my consultancy may be equally useless as all the others paid for out of the public purse, but, as a special offer to the rate payers of Abingdon I will promise to give this useless information for 50% less than anyone else.
Abingdon is becoming the town of White Elephants. The neighbourhood plan and the consultancy result in no action at all. People just seem to like sitting around on committees.
More worrying…are we being taken for fools ?
Unsightly, dangerous or redundant buildings ? Choking traffic problems ?
No problem: just promise them another consultation and they’ll all shut, meekly, up.
Is this what our council think of the residents of Abingdon ? I’d rather be told the truth about why all these consultations result in nothing concrete.
I think people are being unfair on VWHDC, the regeneration will happen when it happens and not a day earlier or a day later.
I disagree…if VOWH can pay more for it to over-run I think it will likely happen a few days later, if at all possible. Those contactors need to make a living too you know….
Given the housing shortage, all three sites should be converted to one and two bedroom flats without any parking spaces. This strategy has worked really well in the past. Where do I send my invoice?
Shouldn’t bother, if their payment speed proceeds at the same glacial rate.
Regarding the multi storey car park – correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the council (which ever one it is?) agree to extend the lease of the bank who leases it to 150 years in exchange for modernising the shopping precinct and to redevelop that dreadful Charter area including a new car park?
Regarding the council offices why are they about to spend millions on a new “two site” HQ in didcot when they already own this perfectly good property?
@The Teacher; “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”; unless it’s someone else’s money…or a shiny new office block, that’s why… I think I read somewhere that it was going to have a solar panel on the roof somewhere…so, that’s ok.
But, heaven forbid I put a crisp packet in my recycling bin….and the whole lorry is for landfill…