At the Community Free Space over the next three days there will be an Art & Technology Show put on by pupils from Fitzharrys School.
Fitzharrys School recently had an Ofsted inspection that found the school to be Good in all areas. Many congratulations to them on all their hard work.
Better took over running the leisure centres in the Vale of White Horse district last year. They already run a lot of the leisure facilities in London and are taking over more facilities round the country from Somerset to Newcastle and Belfast.
Now both the VWHDC and Better are investing in work on a major refurbishment to the White Horse and Tennis Centre.
Gym equipment is being replaced, and work is underway on the gym changing rooms. The gyms are still operational throughout with some areas cordoned off from time to time.
Repairs and refurbishment are also happening to the swimming pool and changing area. During that period the swimming pool is empty and swimming lessons are at the Abbey Meadow Outdoor Pool.
There is also breaking news that as the Outdoor pool is coming to the end of its working life that it will be rebuilt. So plans for that should develop in the next year or so. That is in addition to the £500K+ already being invested to improve the Abbey Meadow play areas, and changing facilities announced earlier.
The brown rat is nocturnal and is a good swimmer, and so rats are never that far away when you are by the riverside. Rattus Norvegicus can often be seen in the Margaret Brown Gardens at the end of the day, and does not appear that concerned when people are about.
The one in this short video does take fright at the sound of a motor bike. Like pigeons they are a very successful urban species.
The Oxfordshire County Council cuts to the town’s subsidised bus services will happen in the next two weeks. This will make it more difficult for elderly people, without their own transport, to get into town and to the community hospital. Most effected are villages, and areas in North Abingdon away from the Oxford Road. I was approached by one elderly person yesterday in town who felt very angry about the cuts, and said that they, and others they know, will feel more isolated.
Cutting bus subsidies is being done because of cuts to local government finances imposed by central government with the aim of having a budget surplus by 2020, a target that the chancellor of the exchequer has had to abandon after the Brexit vote.