All three buildings (medical centre, school, and community centre) are in a row, and seem to follow the same red brick and green colour theme, although the school has yellow as well.

What impressed me when I first drove round this way, to drop my daughter off for a party at the community centre, was how wide the cycleways are, and how the developers had left wide green spaces.

There was a lot of protest when this develepment was proposed and so the people had a bigger say than usual. It turned out well for the people. But maybe not so good for the developers pocket. The people may not get such big a say again in future.

Here the Drayton Road approaches the bridge over the River Ock.

It is probably the most congested part of Abingdon from about 7:45 to 8:55 on most weekday mornings. The bridge was widened back in the 1970s but not enough for todays traffic, and any further improvements have been deemed to be NOT cost effective by the County Council.

The white buildings on the right have been recently vacated. They were home to CrossRoads Garage (who sold Renault cars and vans) and out front there was an Esso filling station and shop. On the left is another car dealership. Until recently, it had a BP filling station and shop, but they too have now closed, and the dealership has expanded. Until recently, it sold and serviced MG Rover cars, but now it sells Ford and Citreon.

A petition with 160 signatures from South Abingdon residents was presented to the County Council transport committee last Thursday.

However it clashed with another much larger petition; that of a bus through Jericho Oxford. They had about 1000 signatures, and crammed 50 people into the room, and had lots of media coverage.

The chairman of the committee, Councillor David Robertson, said the Oxford Jericho bus was being kept, and there had been no need for them to all be there. “You could have stayed in bed!” the many elderly protestors were told. Councillor Robertson blamed unfounded rumours about the removal of the bus on the press and political speculation.

As to the 44 it got largely ignored, among all the noise. Molly, who organised the petition, is very disappointed and angry. She says the new service that replaces the 44 will not be so good. The Caldecott area of South Abingdon has lost the direct route to Oxford it always had. It will be more difficult for people to get to the new bus.

In the Guildhall this morning, people had gathered to celebrate all those people who do voluntary work in the community.

Not very far way, in the Market Place the Normandy Market had been set up.

The bread stall and the crepe stalls had the longest queues. The last time there was a Normany Market it was disrupted by torrential rain.

And at the far end of the precinct, the Town Council were doing a survey on what people thought of Town Council services (Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Poor).