At lunchtime on New Years Day there was dancing in the undercroft of the County Hall in Abingdon. The Old Speckled Hen Morris dancers,
and the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers were dancing.
The old year had died on December 31st, and January 1st was a new chance to dance and bring life to the new year. There was more dancing at the Broad Face and music for most of the afternoon.
I celebrate the Winter Solstice, the shortest day, which was the 21st December. Before the Romans brought their religeons to this country the Druids marked points of nature. The Winter Solstice marks the imminent return of light, i.e. the point where the sun starts to grow in strength. The turn from darkness to light was a matter for rejoicing and the victory of light over darkness gave the assurance that Spring, warmth and growth would come again. The Winter Solstice was the time of year when the Queen of Heaven, the Great Mother, gave birth to the Son of Light. Another occasion for lighting fires, to encourage the power of the sun and to mark the triumph of summer over winter and light over darkness.
The Oxford Mail has finally caught up and added the article about the Old Gaol Fiasco to it’s website, for those that are interested. http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/15799242.Old_Gaol_developer_tries_to_delay___1m_housing_payment/
Thanks to you, Guido, for bringing this to our attention on this Blog a few days ago.
The whole saga, from the original quotes for the Old Gaol, has been a despicable failure of the Vale and Town Councilors, and their anonymous, back-room ‘functionaries’ … aka … ‘I am the very model of a modern Major Waste of Space’ …sung to Gilbert and Sullivan.
Perhaps the Vale can be SHAMED into showing some SPINE in this case, but I doubt it …
None of the councilors who signed off on the original deal should have the gall to stand for political office again.
This ‘project’ has turned out such a questionable mess in so many ways that I’m lost for words and hoping that the guilty don’t get away with conning a whole Town out of its assets.
Just noted that LM posted the same article as Guido on this Blog’s December 30th edition (post 15). However, LM found it in the BICESTER ADVERTISER … i’m sure that was local news for Bicester.
Not wishing a conspiracy on us, so, perhaps, it’s just incompetence on the part of the Press, the Developer, our Councils, who are all merely clueless-in-concert.
Following on from the previous topic in an attempt to keep the Cranbourne Homes fiasco uppermost in our minds it makes my blood boil to think we’ll shortly be facing a rise in council tax which we’ll all have to pay, none of us will be able to use such a feeble excuse as CH are using to default on their payment to council, moreover a popular independent town centre business that closed in summer were given court proceedings for non profit payment of the B I D levy of a few hundred pounds, I sincerely trust the Vale will be as forceful as that to CH’s payment obligations or indeed me when I shall refuse to pay my council tax stating the same reason as CH are saying, the Vale will be guilty of setting a very dangerous precedent if the excuse them, the least they can do is charge them interest on a daily basis or simply reclaim the property, then they can place in line behind the boarded up Old Abbey House, the Uppet Reaches and the Guild Hall! What a farce!