Smarts Fish and Chips have reopened in the town centre after a closure for refurbishment that lasted several months.
The large new unit in Bury Street is being fitted out for Superdrug to move in next to Boots. It has been empty since being built during 2013.
Word is the new owner is the guy that owns the Lebanese restaurant two doors along and the cafe that was once the florist in Bath St ? There was an interesting article in one of the Sunday’s recently on the changing face of High street ownership, the reported on one market town similar to Abingdon that had 18 different nationalities of shop owners in one street, I can think of 21 here,
One assumes the Superdrug move must be part of a plan for the charter area. Has there been any news on this?
That will be one huge Superdrug, are they really taking both sides?
Steve – according to what was said at the Local Plan Examination last week the Charter redevelopment is still part of the Vale’s grand plan, but it doesnt sound as if anything is imminent; NB that is secondhand information as I missed that session, but hopefully someone will correct me if I have it wrong.
Meanwhile Didcot has just announced plans for a £60 million pound development opposite the station with a mix of shops & restaurants!
I find Didcot a bit of a dump, regardless of the fancy shops. Give me Abingdon any day!
If I want to go the cinema in Didcot I have to pray that one of only three disabled spaces is vacant, if not I have to go home.
Perhaps they can move the cinema to the proposed flat area, and have more disabled parking!!!
Abingdon desperately needs better facilities. I don’t much care for Didcot, but resent taking the children to the cinema. We are a large town, which is due to expand, with nearly full employment and a reasonable amount of disposal income.
I find it staggering that we failed to land a decent cinema bid and the latest proposal labelled as a business planning document doesn’t make sense, is poorly laid out and would get laughed out of court in any commercial operation. Someome, somewhere with some vision and commercial nouse needs to get a grip on what is going on with the Guildhall.
Superdrug, will they use the upper space as well?.
Will the BID be getting things moving with the Charter, or are they concentrating on free WiFi to save the businesses some money?
Steve…are you new here?
A cinema would be brilliant.
Unfortunately Abingdon Mum, we aren’t allowed one because there is already one within a 100 mile radius of Abingdon….apparently…
WASTE OF SPACE! A TWO STOREY UNIT TO ATTRACT A BIGGER RETAILER!!!!! OH NO JUST ANOTHER INTERNAL MOVE FOR A LOW COST ESTABLISHMENT!! ITS SHAMEFUL
It all seems to have gone quiet on the BID front, rumour is the chairman has resigned and only three people from the towns business community have offerd to stand for committee? Perhaps someone from the BID proposal panel can make a statement as many, if not all the towns businesses are wanting information ?
Longtime reader, first time poster.
Steve – apparently the major cinema chains were approached about opening a site within Abingdon, but they declined as there are other other cinemas in close proximity. I guess they didn’t think there would be enough business or that it would pull business away from their other sites.
It is a shame.
Daniel – I’m not new here. I have lived in Abingdon for a number of year, but only an occaisional lurker on this board. To be honest, I don’t really get or care about the politics of the Charter area, but I was just interested to know if anytihng was actually happening with it.
Steve, take a look (if you haven’t already done so), at http://www.abingdonfirst.co.uk. FoI Re The Charter Area/Scottish Widows.
It may enlighten you slightly.
Fair enough Steve – I always try to judge someone’s longevity in the town by the faith they still hold in those responsible for its future. You seemed to have a lot of misplaced faith; I made the assumption you were new.
However, if you don’t read this, or other blogs often, you could indeed be forgiven your misplaced faith. Welcome to Abingdon 1996! Sorry…I mean 2006. Oops…sorry..i mean 2016. Apologies, nothings changed…I get confused.
Forgive me. That’s a little unfair. Free WiFi. Don’t forget the free WiFi. And Superdrug, a bigger Superdrug….
The free wifi isn’t for the likes of you Daniel, its for the businesses !
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, what this town needs is a Monorail !
I was lucky enough to be a born optimist. Some may say I am naive, but to be honest, if you don’t believe in the potential for change and have the drive and determination, my experience is that nothing will happen. Yes, there will be periods where things don’t go your way, but dust yourself down and press on. I suspect one of the key reasons that progress is slow because the people involved in the decision making lack the skills to deliver the change. You only need to take a look at that Guildhall planning document to recognise that. It isn’t a role for enthusiastic do-gooders, we need people who have actually delivered change. IMHO…
Couldn’t agree more Steve
Steve, you’ll soon get ground down with trying to push a stone up hill !
….I’ve been bent, pounded, wielded and yielded, to the pessimistic person I now am. But really…i’m just an experienced optimist.
Steve…I wish you well…but when the time comes, when you are brow beaten and fed up of being knocked down…we,down here, will welcome you with a hug and an “at least you tried…”. handshake.
It’s not so bad from down here. There’s little disappointment. Things happen as you expect. I haven’t had my hopes dashed for ages.
Like I said, I suspect one of the key reasons that progress is slow because the people involved in the decision making lack the skills to deliver the change. You only need to take a look at that Guildhall planning document to recognise that they don’t have the requisite skills. Maybe efforts should be directed in another direction? It’s nothing personal, but if you haven’t got the right people at the top, it doesn’t matter how hard they work or the good townsfolk push, not much will change for the town and everyone can keep spinning in their little mousewheels. Perhaps if there was a change of personnell and fewer do-gooders, you might see quicker progress.
Steve – welcome to the optimists team. I completely agree with your remark about enthusiastic do- gooders. If only the people with the skills you mention would stand for the Council! However there are talented people around the town who are working to try to make things happen – if you would like to get involved and have skills to bring I am sure Alastair can put you in touch with them!
Daniel – what a wimp! I’ve been at it for 10 years and they haven’t ground me down yet!
Hester – thanks for the offer. To be honest, I am probably an enthusiastic amateur; I’ve just got enough insight to recognise that I might be in too deep.
I would urge all those in the Town Council to be honest with themslves and ask themselves the question whether they think they have the requisitie skills and can they point to lots of other major change implementations which they have delivered during their careers?
All credit to you heater. I’ll take that on the chin; a wimp I am. On the ropes. Beaten in to submission…..waiting for the bell.
Faith will be restored when ALL…or even some, or even just one of the following occurs….
There’s a serious conversation about the bridge we never got.
Lodge Hill is fully opened, with no gun held to heads for yet more development.
Someone seems at least a little interested in determining the future of Abingdon – twee Market town or Same old same old clone town.
Some vision for total redevelopment of the centre becoming of one of the largest communities outside the city
Talk of where both new schools and doctors are to go, before development.
Serious discussion regarding the traffic in town.
Someone being bought to book for the situation we are currently in.
And even…as a quickest of quick wins…getting a brown tourist sign on the A34 telling people that the Jewel in The Thames’ crown is even here!
All being well a consultant is being sourced at this very moment in order to fail to deliver on one, some, or all of these issues as we speak.
Daniel – like you I thought the “brown signs” should be an easy one to pick off so I have had a couple of attempts at lobbying relevant people. However when I did my homework on the relevant websites I found two depressing statements:
“New bypassed community signs will not be permitted in future for a destination that is already signed as a primary destination using standard directional signing. Only small towns or villages with a population of
less than 10,000 may be signed”
and – if we could get round that one:
“As the applicant, you will need to cover the cost of any agreed tourist signs. A single sign may cost £8,000 to £20,000 to design and install if sited on a single or dual carriageway, depending on the size of the sign”
So it’s not going to be such a quick win…
PS in case you are wondering why other places have them, the answer is that the rules were changed a few years ago!
Our town is the wrong shape really. It’s a shopping area on a big roundabout. It’s all over the place – and now we have flats being built amongst the shops and car park. Areas should be designated better than they are. Should sort out one problem before moving onto the next especially North Abingdon and Lodge Hill.
Oh, we had a cinema once …… hey ho.
Some of us have skills and experieince, Hester, we’re just not allowed to make use of them 🙁