Sunshine and Smiles at Abingdon Healthfest

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Abingdon Market Place hosted a highly successful Healthfest, organised by Healthy Abingdon. The annual event brought together more than 20 local groups dedicated to improving health and wellbeing. Helped by some sunshine and an interactive programme, it drew a steady stream of visitors from 10 am to 2 pm.

The Mayor of Abingdon, Cllr Rawda Jehanli, toured the stalls and met organisers. Here she joins Dance Creative, who run ‘Dance for Life’, seated dance classes every Tuesday morning at Trinity Church’s Conduit Centre – a gentle, sociable way to stay active that is great fun.

Abingdon Surgery highlighted some of the many services they offer to their patients.

Abingdon Town Amateur Boxing Club invited young people to try their hand at the sport of boxing.

Abingdon Parkrun volunteers, fresh from that morning’s event with 455 participants, were on hand to explain how to get involved.

Visitors also enjoyed live music from Abingdon’s own ‘André Rieu,’ Ben Heaney. Ben runs age and dementia friendly Moving Music events in the area. His was one of many talented services promoted through Age UK Oxfordshire.

There were some exciting hands-on opportunities. SCAS (South Central Ambulance Service) had an ambulance and were teaching first aid, from practising CPR and the use of an AED (defibrillator), to applying a tourniquet on a nasty looking wound.

The Muse Art School invited people to have a go at making a papier-mâché pear, to give a flavour of their creative classes in Abingdon.

Alongside the demonstrations were stalls from The Abingdon Bridge (TAB), Reducing the Risk, Abingdon Green Gym, Active Communities, UCARE (urology cancer research), Friends of Abbey Meadow Outdoor Pool, Oxfordshire Mind, Abingdon Good Neighbours, Healthwatch Oxfordshire, Dementia Friendly Abingdon, Kennington Memory Club, Mumby’s Live-in Care, Scottish Country Dancing, and Bellevie Care.

Making Apple Juice at St Ethelwold’s House

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This week, the Abingdon Carbon Cutters have been pressing apple juice at St Ethelwold’s House.

The process begins by washing the apples, cutting out any damaged parts, and chopping them. This is the most sociable part, with groups working together and chatting.

Next, the apples are put through a ‘scratter,’ which crushes them into a pulp.

The pulp is then transferred to a press, wrapped in muslin and squeezed, with the juice running out into buckets. The leftover pulp is collected for composting.

Finally, the juice is strained as it is poured into bottles – which are donated by visitors, just like the apples.

Bottles are £2 each. Fresh, unpasteurised juice was available straight from the press, while pasteurised juice, which keeps longer, could be purchased later.

While I was there two visitors brought their own fruit, and kept it separate throughout the process.

Abingdon Residents’ Parking Schemes Rejected

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Cabinet Member for Transport Cllr Andrew Gant, of Oxfordshire County Council, has dropped two proposed residents’ parking schemes – Abingdon Centre North and the Ock Street area – after overwhelming public opposition.

An informal consultation last November was followed by a formal one over the summer, which drew a heavily negative response. Officers compiled the feedback into a record-breaking 2,500-page agenda document – 1,393 pages on the Abingdon schemes alone, two-thirds from Ock Street.

At the meeting, four people spoke against the proposals in person and two via the internet including the owner of Reeves’s (correction sorry) Fish and Chip Shop, who warned the restrictions would pose the greatest threat to the business in its 100-year history. (Other potential objectors knew officers were already recommending rejection; otherwise many more might have addressed the meeting.)

Cllr Andrew Gant asked few questions about the schemes themselves but asked on behalf of one resident about some double yellow lines that had not been dropped. He also asked about the contrast between informal and formal consultation results.

In the end, he backed officers’ recommendations to scrap both schemes, apart from a few minor details that will go ahead. For many residents the decision will come as a relief – though it leaves open whether months of work and worry have been a worthwhile exercise. Officers do deserve credit for including every response in that record breaking document. It shows democracy in action. Only one print was made.

‘Wonderful news’ – Work Starts on A34 Lodge Hill Interchange

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The main construction work on the long-awaited A34 Lodge Hill interchange started today (Wednesday 3rd September).

During the day, surveyors could been on site with their theodolites, aimed at the splitter island at the A34 southbound off-slip junction. This island will be the first thing to go, creating more space for construction vehicles to move in and out.

Traffic management is already in place. On the A34, lanes have been narrowed and drivers are being asked to slow down near the works to keep everyone safe. Overnight temporary traffic lights are also running between 9 pm and 5 am on the A4183 and the A34 southbound off-slip while the islands are removed.

Cllr Judy Roberts, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Place, Environment and Climate Action, said: “We have all campaigned for this for so long and it is wonderful news that construction has begun.”

The project, being delivered by Balfour Beatty with support from Homes England, is expected to finish by the end of 2026. When complete, it should reduce through-traffic in Abingdon. A condition for the new homes being built to the north of Abingdon was that the Lodge Hill interchange improvements were funded and built.

You can find more details about the A34 Lodge Hill scheme and traffic management plans on Oxfordshire County Council’s website: