In the Town and Vale by-elections in Abingdon yesterday, the Lib-Dems won the town and vale seat previously held by Peter Jones of the Conservatives.
Lorraine Oates is the new town councillor. She got 709 votes against 515 for Conservatives and 124 for Labour.
Andrew Skinner is the new District Councillor. He got 683 votes against 518 for Conservatives and 133 for Labour.
In the central Abingdon vacancy, caused by the loss of Penny McDougall, Jan Morter of the Lib-Dems retained the seat with 719 votes against 413 for the Conservatives and 216 for Labour.
This means on Abingdon-on-Thames Town Council there are now 10 Conservatives, 9 Lib-Dems, 1 Labour, 1 Independent. So the Mayor Making next week will be very close. If the Independent and Labour candidate side with the Lib-Dems, as seems likely, then Mayor Making will revert to the old pattern where the next in line, that is Sam Bowring, becomes Mayor. But we will see then.
Wonderful, wonderful news!
same old same old
Chin up DKR87!
lol – i’m not gonna throw myself off a cliff vik99…the sun is shining…i’ve just been paid….and it’s friday! and UKIP did give the mainstream the bloody nose i hoped they would…just not in abingdon it seems! at least the tory didnt get in in my ward anyway!
Looks like Neil Fawcett’s extensive use of Word Art to plaster leaflets around town has come to fruition.
Now all he needs to do is sit around being lazy for his term of office as he and they all do, until they have to worry about even approaching the electorate again next time.
There’s one thing I’d ask that he does. Get the potholes fixed. No half measures. In some areas it’s an accident waiting to happen. Will it take someone to lose control of their car or a death on the roads of Abingdon before something is done?
Im always amazed that people feel the best way to get someone to do something they want is to start off by insulting them.
I dont agree with Neil’s politics and, you’ll be unsurprised to hear, i didn’t vote for him, but he is not lazy, and neither was his predecessor
Ah hello Neil. Nice alt. Classic cover there – claim not to support him with a vote, then use that to fallaciously suppose your viewpoint on him is not opinion, but some factual word of God. I disagree, and I have a right to that opinion. Less than 50% of the electorate voted in your part of Abingdon, so seemingly, the view that councillors do nothing unless they’re looking to be re-elected must be a popular viewpoint. Speak to some actual people in Abingdon …I dare you do to so.
If you prefer, you can do nothing about the potholes, watch as someone gets killed, then blame someone who criticised you for doing nothing….for actually doing nothing.
Frank – my name is Iain Littlejohn, i am not Neil Fawcett. I am a conservative councillor and post fairly regularly on this site.
You are of course most entitled to express your view – im just suggesting that it may be ill informed
Iain is definitely not Neil, honest, and neither am I.
I agree with Iain. I get really fed up of these wseeping sweeping generalisations. Of course there are some lazy politicians, as there are lazy workers in any field, but, if you were to shadow almost any of my fellow councillors, of any political persuasion on Abingdon Town council, for a month, you would soon discover that most of them work very hard not only for their own wards but for the Town as a whole.
On the District and the County there is not the opportunity to get involved even if you are in the ruling group, if you are a back-bencher, thanks to the system brought in 10 years ago which abandoned comittees in favour of the cabinet system. All the power and decision making is in the hands of a very small group of people. backbenchers deal with casework and fight to get things done in their own wards but its a cumbersome and sometimes a very frustrating system and so much more politicised than the old committee system.
sorry about the typo in line 2
So if my view is “ill informed”, what are you doing about the potholes? Just how “informed” are you exactly? I’m not talking small ones. I’m talking one’s that are dangerous to road users and could write off vehicles! I have a right to criticise you, him and any other councillor when I’m in danger, pedestrians are in danger, as are other road users. It is infuriating when I paid nearly £250 for road tax mere weeks ago that this money isn’t been spent effectively and my car is at constant risk of being written off. Why? Because you guys are seemingly too lazy to do anything about it. It’s the natural assumption at the lack of action over months, and it’s the natural assumption when some of your colleagues rant on social media about how they “hate Abingdon” and “disabled mongs” yet represent it.
…and don’t tell me to report them. There are too many, and a number of the big ones, have been painted around by the council so that they can consider doing something about it later. For example, there’s a large one at the entrance of Cotman Close you’ve chosen to paint around and you have to swerve around it on entering the road. There are numerous potholes on Preston and Drayton road. There are a number on Caldecott road. The list goes on.
This is where you tell me you’re spending x amount of cash on painting a bit around them, it’s all mother natures fault, and you might think about actioning a fix, if someone gets killed. Tell me, how many millions are being spent on Abingdon Museum, that has nothing in anyway,
(… removed small section here since seemed. Backstreeter… )
Just how “ill informed” about this town are you Mr Iain Littlejohn? It’s corrupt to the core, and Fawcett and the others won’t be interested in engaging the electorate or even speaking to it, until the next election now. He’s “winning here” off the back of his ability to churn out more inane leaflets than the opponents.
One more question. Now that Badcock’s got a pasting at the polls, will you consider changing the name back to just “Abingdon”. I loved the original logic that “people won’t know that Abingdon is on the Thames”. Logic seemingly acquired from the late 50s or some other long gone period, without any research done into how people actually find Abingdon. Or even searching “Abingdon” on the internet, with the very first result, being an ok Wikipedia article covering where Abingdon is located, on the river. Perhaps you guys should collaborate in making that Wikipedia article Featured Article standard on Wikipedia, to really get Abingdon’s name out there properly, before then, now here’s the good bit, requesting the featured article gets covered on the Wikipedia main page for the day. Do some research on how many users would see such an article on one of the Top 10 global internet websites by visitors, then call be “ill informed” on ideas on the state of Abingdon again. Put that in your pipe and smoke it Councillors!
“ill informed”. Throw the other ad hominem sir. Throw the other one!
My you’re an angry person frank garret or bob lightsoot i think you were posting as yesterday given your repeated references.
You clearly are ill informed im afraid.
I’m mot going to comment on most of your rant, but i would point out that i am a town councillor and the matter of potholes is the responsibility of the county council, so im afraid i have no authority in that sphere
abingdon on thames is a nice name.
Angry UKIP voter Frank? I don’t think you’ll be the first one fobbed off by a Tory mate!
You’ve some fair and some unfair points. I’m not really interested in politics: but a big fan of backstreeters blog. long time reader, first time commenter. The Wiki Idea is fantastic. Abingdon-on-Thames article meeting WP:FA will take more than just text. Images from Abingdon’s history. The lot.
Iain and Neil aren’t lazy. I was irritated to hear the Badcocks lose both because neither are they. I’ve seen the Mong rants by Brickhall and the other one (Tory forget his name). It’s a shame to lose such experience the Badcocks have when you’ve got such questionable people as them. Quite the opposite as the abingdon loving Badcocks. They’ve helped me in the past when i moved to abingdon many years ago as i know they have many. Really nice people, sure you are too Neil mate. They’ve paid the price for the road situation I fear.
Hmm, almost the same configuration as before. 10 of one and 9 of the other with two swinging votes. However, folks, it is now time to ditch the insults and work together to benefit Abingdon. I am sure we can all do it.
There’s some total nonsense talked on here. “Frank Garrett”, who posts similar things but under different names, obviously has a personal grudge with one or two local councillors in the town. Having had help from several of them, some better than others, I found both councillor Badcock and especially councillor Fiddaman to be really caring and helpful when others had failed. So whatever tripe FG is spouting, under whatever name, you obviously don’t “get” the internet or you wouldn’t say such ludicrous things. Go and bore off somewhere else where your bitterness can engulf you and you alone and leave the rest of us to it. Sad man.
Janet is right about the party-political poutin’ ‘n’ posturin’. I went along to the Drayton Road housing meeting at the Guildhall and the sort of playground party-political name-calling going on was the type of thing that adolescent boys have grown out of by the time they’re fourteen. The guilty party/parties know to whom I’m referring. Such people are a liability to their parties and their constituents.
Yesterday, on the BBC News channel, it was virtually the local elections wall-to-wall. On the little of it I watched the star-turn was Farage being interviewed with place-persons from each of the three other ‘major’ parties. To each of the questions related to the key ‘UKIP issues’ Farage gave a straight answer and the place-persons waffled on a subject of their choice.
However, the key communication was Farage’s smile which contained more than a hint of contempt for those on the other side of the table. The one thing this guy ‘gets’ is the total contempt with which most of us increasingly regard the party-political class …. regardless of political party.
What the situation needs are people in politics who are capable of independent intelligent thought and not endlessly platitudes recycled by those who’ve taken the party shilling.
Given that, I’ve met some less pushy and publicity-hungry councilors who do a lot for the community which is nothing to do with party politics. They’re exempt from the above and, again, they know who they are.
Hopefully it’ll have sunk in with the main parties that they’re fooling no-one but themselves.
Why doesn’t this site get a council grant? It’s the best information asset this town has.
I’d hope the councillors respect the public voice and choose a mayor from the party with the most councillors.
giving it to the longest serving regardless smacks of an old boy’s club that thinks itself above the electorate.
Agree wit Rudi. Most councillers seems obvious 2 me.
so no chance for an Indepedent mayor then 🙁
Hi Frank, or whatever your real name is.
Potholes: I will be contacting the Highways Dept. This week to ask them to prioritse Caldecott Road, Preston Road and the Fitzharris Estate, which apppear to be in the worst condition of many bad roads;
In any negotitaions or budget discussions that take place in the next few weeks I will argue for more resources to repair potholes in the short term and for more resources for long term maintenance (the underlying issue);
I will be calling for a review of the quality or repairs currently being done.
Laziness: No-one who knows me has ever accused me of being lazy. I haven’t accused my opposition of it either.
Final point – I use my real name on here, as do Iain, Jason, Angela and other councillors. Your points would have more credibility if you did too.
Dear all, I have read your comments with interest. I see some of the frustrations shared here. One thing that does become apparent however, is the Libs v Cons story. It has been this way since I moved to Abingdon many years ago. personally I would welcome change. A fresh new approach to people who are capable of driving change and in the interests of the communities and the country, not solely for their own political careers.
An independant mayor – now that would be novel. I fear tomorrow will politicise the mayor even more, surely the deputy mayor of what ever party should be elected as mayor the following year if still an elected councillor. Surely the mayor is not just a ceremonial position but chair of the town council so should reside with the party in power, Aidan and Angela would show real guts tomorrow by abstaining on the vote .
PS I too use my real name
The position of mayor is ceremonial and understood to be above politics. The mayor presides over the full council meetings and It has been customary for him/her not to vote, although some mayors have ignored that. If a casting vote is necessary the mayor would normally be expected to vote for the status quo.
All councillors are elected so they all represent the combined wishes of the people of Abingdon – possibly apart from me because I was elected as a Lib Dem and resigned from the party a year later because of the coalition government.
However I did put out a leaflet to explain why and if a significant number had fed-back to say they objected because they had voted for me as a Lib Dem, I would have offered to stand down. However the feed back I got was all positive with many saying that local government should be non-political.
I shall support Samantha for mayor because it IS her turn and I know she will work hard and do the job well.
I am up for deputy mayor, and I hope that I will get enough support to be elected
and I did, yay 🙂
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