Long standing safety issue on footbridge

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safety issue
There are four separate reports on FixMyStreet relating to the deteriorating surface of the footbridge over the River Ock, which links the Ock Valley Walk to the rear entrance of Tower Close. Taken together, they point to a structure that has been unsafe for at least six months.
safety issue
Reports dating back to August 2025 describe exposed boards, widening gaps and broken sections of decking on what is not only a footbridge but also part of a cycle route. By December, one walker reported their foot going through the bridge deck, noting that holes ‘regularly appear’ and describing the bridge as being in a ‘dire condition’. A further report later that month warned of a 20 cm square hole in the centre of the bridge, with the surrounding surface bouncing freely, suggesting that there was little or no support beneath. The repeated use of heavy-duty plastic coverings appears to have been a temporary measure, masking rather than resolving the underlying deterioration.
safety issue
When I went over the bridge today, there was again an exposed hole in the deck, clearly visible, A foot could easily slip through the surface.

Yesterday, a concerned parent told me that this bridge is used by numerous schoolchildren every school day and asked me to put it on the blog. He said concerns have apparently been raised directly with district councillors but there has been no effective response.

I believed when I wrote this that the bridge was the responsibility of Vale of White Horse District Council (VWHDC) as it was the VWHDC end of the Ock Valley Walk. But I am told by the Tithe Farm and Ladygrove Newsletter that it is Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) and the local councillor, Neil Fawcett had been chasing the council on this on their behalf.

After the Snow Queen, What’s Happening Around Abingdon this week

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Whats on
The Abingdon Drama Club’s Snow Queen finished its run this evening. A fantastic production: by turns haunting and genuinely funny. If you missed it, you missed something special.
(Image credit: garethclark photography, with his Snow Queen picture superimposed and blurred over the theatre steps by me.)

But there’s plenty more happening in Abingdon.
Whats on
The Giant Jumble Sale at Fitzharrys School takes place on Sunday 25 January. It’s a two-hour sale, with items priced to sell.
Whats on
The next Agnostics Anonymous meeting, on Tuesday 27 January, will explore the interplay between drama, poetry, fiction and spiritual experience.
Whats on
There’s been much recent talk of otter sightings around Abingdon. On Wednesday 28 January there will be a talk, The Otter in England, looking at our long history with otters, how we nearly lost them, how they returned, and what the future may hold.
Whats on
Simon Mason in conversation with Eve Smith, this Thursday 29 January at Abingdon Library, is fully booked.
Whats on
There are, however, a few places left for Nicki Thornton (formerly of Mostly Books), who after a successful run of younger reader novels now has a book for adults. She’ll be at Abingdon Library on Saturday 31 January.
Whats on
Also at Abingdon Library, the sky in the Abingdon jigsaw – featured last week – is still outwitting some of the town’s best jigsaw solvers.

Nuclear Ban – five years on

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Nuclear Ban
At 12 noon on Thursday, the Abingdon Peace Group gathered in the Market Place to mark five years since the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons became international law, in January 2021.

Back in 2021, with Covid about, the group held a socially distanced event in a mostly deserted Market Place.
Nuclear Ban
This week’s gathering echoed that earlier moment, but without the masks. Progress has been made since the treaty came into force. 74 nation states — more than half the countries of the world — have ratified it. The UK has not signed up.

Behind the treaty stands the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Its campaigning helped bring the treaty into being, and in 2017 ICAN’s work was recognised with the Nobel Peace Prize. More information is available at www.icanw.org.

More New Road Names at Abbey Fields and The Meadows

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More New Roads
In The Meadows at Abbey Fields, the David Wilson Homes development, several of the roads are named after businesses with long associations with Abingdon. A new one to me is Holmes Mews.
More New Roads
Percy Holmes was Mayor of Abingdon in 1953 and belonged to a family long associated with the town through P. Holmes & Son, bakers with shops in Ock Street and Bath Street.
More New Roads
Nearby in The Meadows is a new children’s play area. When I visited last summer it was still behind fencing. It has now opened.
More New Roads
On the neighbouring Abbey Fields estate, a Barratt Homes development, are a couple of other road names that seem to be fairly new. One of these is Crane Avenue. Rhoda Crane, known as Sue, served as a town councillor from 1987 to 1995 and was Mayor of Abingdon in 1993–94. She took a particular interest in town twinning.
More New Roads
Another is Pickering Close. Dorothea Pickering was an educator and spiritual pioneer in Abingdon. She bought a house in East St Helen Street and moved her preparatory school there from The Vineyard, where it continued until 1967. In the 1970s she re-imagined the house as a spiritual centre, naming it St Ethelwold’s after the Abbot of Abingdon Abbey.