The volunteers who look after Barton Fields have a massive task at the moment, raking up hay from the wildflower meadow and other areas. Extra volunteers would be very welcome because of the extra volume of hay this year.
Tools and refreshments are provided, including filled rolls for lunch provided you let them know you are coming. They will be meeting at 9:30 am at the Barton Lane entrance opposite Sophos, on Thursday 6th & Friday 7th Sept.
Contact David Guyoncourt on 01235 529151 or email david.guyoncourt@ntlworld.com to book your packed lunch.
Reminder: nothing really to do with the above but quick reminder to readers of the blog about the developer presentation about the potential 170 houses being proposed for the hay filled field at the back of Virginia way.
It runs from 1-8pm at the guildhall and I’d encourage people to see the plans and make their feelings known.
Went and had a look at the plans and filled in a Questionnaire.
Firstly well done to the volunteers for ensuring this part of town is well cared for and maintains the rural appeal to the lock area.
Secondly to follow up on Iain’s comment, I went to the guildhall today and would ask everyone who fills in the questionnaire to avoid answering some of the questions and to comment only about the bigger issues. The questions ask do we want housing-of course we do! But the infrastructure needs to be put in place. As my wife says there is a lack of school places. Hallam avoided talking about cars adding that they support pedestrians and cycling! They also say they will pay for infrastructure costs, so the costs are the diamond junction at lodge hill, opening of the Drayton slip road, a second river crossing and roads together with a school and community support.
If you go to the guildhall make sure you make these points or the questionnaire will merely report that Abingdon needs housing. A classic loaded survey.
I agree with what Peter says re the Q’naire. Also, as I understood, (if I am correct), any infrastructure costs might be at the expense of reducing the proportion of affordable housing. I stress that this is how I understood it and I could be wrong? Perhaps others might know?
I agree with Peter completely – dodgiest survey I’ve seen for a while – go straight to the comments section.
I spoke to tgeir traffic consultant who seemed to think that Drayton road situation could be fixed by putting up a traffic controlled roundabout by tge white horse pub. The occ traffic officer made a presentation to some of tge town councillors last year and when the same idea was suggested, he told us it had been modelled thoriughly and rejected as it would just move tge bottle neck back down the road.
At the same meeting we got him to give us estimates on lodge hill interchange and second river crossing schemes. He estimated (approximately) that the schemes would cost £10 and £20 m respectively. He estimated it would need a 6000 house development to trigger this sort of level of investment. This was an informal meeting so I wouldn’t take the numbers as God-sent but it gives an idea of the scale of the issue.
In summary I wasn’t at all convinced, despite all tge cameras they’ve put up the Drayton road, that these developers have any serious intent or credible plan to deal with the increased traffic this development would entail.
Hope this helps.
Re iain: We’ve lived in Abingdon for nearly 30 years in the new houses built off Audlett drive. The opinion then was that the full lodge hill interchange was needed. Surely enough houses have been built since then to justify the investment. But when do you start counting. And don’t forget Nicola Blackwell’s election pledge for the Lodge hill interchange!
I can understand south Abingdon residents’ frustration with Marcham road clogged with north Abingdon traffic heading south.
Fully agree with you Peter – i used to live in kempster close myself – information i provided here is just to help clarify that this development won’t be able to afford to find the sort of traffic scheme that would be necessary to actually make a difference to traffic on the Drayton road.
I went, too.
The drainage engineer told me that they had solved all the problems. I am afraid I didn’t believe him; nobody solves all the problems… He didn’t like me saying that the road drainage system cannot cope with the existing load without frequent overflow problems.
I asked about the additional cars. The traffic engineer estimated an additional 125 cars. I pointed out that the national average was nearly two cars per household. So I suggested we settle for 170. This was unwelcome news, since I added that morning congestion builds up on weekdays in school terms from about eight o’clock. I hadn’t the heart to tell them about the previous research relating to traffic lights at the top of Ock Street.
I asked about schools. With 170 houses, I suggested that 200 children of school age might be a reasonable estimate. If half of those are of primary school age, that will mean an additional four classrooms, and additional four teachers and an addition 4-8 classroom assistants. Ieft the secondary school question hanging in the air.
The questionnaire avoided open questions and so was designed to provide damage limitation to the planning proposal.
I liked the architect, though; he foresaw the problems, but told me that he was constrained by the limited nature of the planning process. He agreed that the issues I had raised would not be solved by the proposal in its present form.
It was a lively half-hour. Of course, I cycled there!
This was a fishing trip. The developer’s ‘presentation’ was the kind of ‘cut and paste’ effort where the name of the town and a few details can be changed so that they can move on to try and hoodwink another town next week and so on. The whole thing reeked of chancers … you could tell by the number of times they used ‘sustainable’ on their presentation boards. Mainly planner-speak garnished with superficial comment on the town … they even stated that the traffic system had been a well-received success!
These developers are from Birmingham … they’re carpetbaggers and clueless as to the needs of Abingdon.
Make plenty of noise and hopefully they’ll move off to somewhere else, but we can’t be complacent as that how these guys make their money.