Today there was an exhibition about the first phase of homes off the Dunmore Road in North Abingdon (425 from 900). The land includes part of the field to the right of the footpath to Sunningwell, and the field to on the left of the footpath – after the woodland round Tilsley Park.
Dunmore Road is part of the route round Abingdon. There will be two new junctions to serve the first 425 homes, and so traffic flow will be impacted.
The development will help finance the south facing slip lanes at the Lodge Hill junction onto the A34. That should reduce the amount of traffic on the Dunmore Road. However those Lodge Hill plans are currently lodged with the Highways Agency and they could be biding their time. The Oxford to Cambridge Expressway is also under consideration this year. So they might delay a decision on Lodge Hill until the expressway route is decided.
The exhibition was at the Northcourt Centre and was very similar to previous housing development exhibitions and comprised some stand up exhibition banners, maps scattered on tables, and representatives of the developers for people to talk to about the plans. You can view the same banners online and make comments at https://northabingdon.co.uk/.
The banners do not address the main local worry that these houses will be built before any infrastructure – that is not just the A34 slipways, but also the new primary school. Doctor surgery capacity in Abingdon will also an issue. I heard one developer representative saying ‘I am not a traffic expert’, but as always that is what many of the questions were about.
In Albert Park in Abingdon hundreds of purple crocuses are growing.
They were planted in 2017 as part of the campaign undertaken by Rotary International to eradicate Polio in the world. The purple represents the purple ink mark put on children’s fingers after vaccination. This campaign has been sustained since 1985 by Rotary International and partners. In that time polio cases are down 99.9%.
Polio is a virus which affects children under five and causes paralysis and death. When I was young, back in the long and distant past, knowing people affected by the disease was quite common. Polio vaccinations were introduced in the mid-1950s and the disease was eradicated in the UK in the 1980s.
Trinity Learning has been going for ten years, providing a unique kind of support to schools. Rosemary ,who runs Trinity Learning, asked local schools to design a new logo.
This one from a child at Carswell school did not win.
Neither did this mood board showing a development of ideas with a final idea.
Neither did any of these designs win. All were very good.
The winning drawing was by seven year old Olivia from St Peter CE Primary School in Wootton. The design shows a dove flying out, and the judges felt this captured the essence of the work done by Trinity Learning – setting staff and children free to go in peace. The wings of the dove also looked like a hand. The children’s future is in our hands.
Professionals from MCC Design (in Long Hanborough) then transformed the winning drawing into the final logo.
These drawings, and many more, are on display at 35 Ock Street over the the next couple of weeks. There will be a prize giving in March.
The Church in Abingdon annual Lent Lectures began this evening at Trinity Church. They run for five weeks.
Lent starts on Ash Wednesday – after Shrove Tuesday, 5th March, and ends on Easter Sunday, 21st April. Some people gives something up for Lent, and give the money to charity instead.
Today was also the hottest February day on record in some parts of the UK – the first time a temperature of over 20 c has been recorded in winter.
We could do an environmental pledge this Lent. Any ideas?
The mist lifted and we enjoyed a sunny February Sunday here in Abingdon-on-Thames.
The view changed quickly. St Helen’s Church steeple was looking like a mirage when I walked across Abingdon Bridge.
On the way back, the steeple was clearly reflected in the water next to East St Helen Street.
The blossoms near to Abingdon Bridge gave a pretty way of framing the Old Gaol.