This evening was the Annual Public Meeting of the Choose Abingdon Partnership.
The outgoing Chairman (pictured) has been in the job for the three years – since the partnership started – and a new chap took over tonight.
The most interesting part of the evening was a report on how visitors perceive Abingdon. Good perceptions were: the town’s appearance and cleanliness, good service and welcome in shops / eating places – service was particularly good at the Tourist Information Centre. Not so good were: public toilets, vacant shops and confusing signage.
Visitors tended to be 56 years or older, and come for a family or public event, and are not drawn in by publicity but by word of mouth, or they are revisiting. They will come back and will recommend the town.
My report is an oversimplification. The full report will be available on the internet in due course.
This town, and its attractions, is vitually ignored by the signage on A34. Yet the river front is used by BBC news as the backdrop.
(..etc..I’ve said this before!)
empty shops, empty pubs ,houses over priced , lots of traffic ,no work, too many charity shops too many estate agents , no cinema , no nightclubs , no theatre , i can not understand why people would not like this town
I was chatting the other day to a lady who had recently moved to Abingdon, having lived in all sorts of other places due to her husband’s work. She said – completely unprompted – how much she loved it here, how friendly everyone was, how helpful people in shops are and how she hoped they would be able to stay here long-term.
Abbo man’s list could, sadly, apply to a great many UK towns – but we DO have some good things which are special to Abingdon – just glance back through this blog for the evidence. Lets build on them – and make sure we tell others about them – as the survey showed, most visitors to Abingdon come on rpersonnel recommendation.
Well said Hester!
Well said Abbo Man. Your positive and constructive attitude is exactly what the town needs.
@ thunder roader
And i suppose you support your town dont you i bet you never shop at tesco buy from a local butcher buy your clothes from town , volunteer where you can . What department for Abingdon council do work for . . We have had lots of shops open and close because we never bother to go in there for example the toy shop just closed because we buy from supermarkets Ybuynu clothes shop has just opened i bet they will not last 1 year they have designer clothes this Abingdon on Thames not Henley
Abbo man – you’re entitled to your opinion but look around you – you actually live in a great town and that’s basically what hidden britain’s research said.
Beautiful river – nags head just reopened, new tenant in broad face, loads of money about to be spent on crown and thistle, old Gaol work nearing completion, guildhall just refurbished and cinema/theatre on way for 2014, museum completed and looking beautiful, precinct development nearing completion which will bring in some larger stores, new weather spoons coming in the old post office, 300 listed buildings in the town centre, several lively markets, something on in market place most weekends, I could go on, and on, and on …,
Personally I love living on Abingdon
Iain I love Abingdon however no larger stores will ever come to Abingdon there is not enough footfall through the shop doors and the shops that are there are struggling unless you sell coffee
We’ll soon see I guess. Scottish widows have said the issue is the size of store rather than footfall which is why they’ve spent 3 million pounds in the precinct – they wouldn’t spend that money if they didn’t believe it would attract suitable tennants.