A chap called Russ sent a leaflet to all the neighbours in East St Helen Street showing a picture of East St Helen Street bedecked in flags in 1902.
All the neighbours have recreated the scene without any council help. One of them told me it means more doing it yourselves.
There’s more bunting going up on Sunday, and balloons and streamers during the week. pity the Council ignored this historic street!
I noticed yesterday that there was nothing in Bath Street – don’t know if the Council guys still have more to put up and just haven’t done it yet or if they have been left out deliberately. If the latter, it seems a pity – it is after all one of our attractive historic streets.
We ran out, sorry, it’s quite expensive. We did want to encourage people to do it themselves, so it’s great that you have and we’re very appreciative of it.
I walk down West St Helens every day on my way home from work and it’s a lovely sight.
Couldn’t get enough bunting for £50,000!
it’s £3.99 in Lewis Baker, lol. i think its bad that all the attention will be focused on Ock Street, gives an unfair prominence to the businesses there, as far as i am aware very little was done in the way of offering other businesses stalls or even an input.
I think there should of been an offer to all the residents of abingdon to form a group to volunteer to organise the events, it seem to be a bit of a fart in a tea cup to me.
We haven’t spent £50,000 – don’t believe everything you read. One of life’s best lessons.
Stert Street looks great. Traders there have got into the spirit of things and the flags make a nice change from bunting.
Everyone can do their bit, can’t they? If buntin is only £3.99 in Lewis Baker, get decorating!
We won’t be here for the best weekend in Abingdon’s calendar as we are at a wedding but I’m sure it will be a great weekend and much more than foul air in a teacup!
Thanks Rachel, hope you have fun at the wedding, there will be lots of pictures from the Town Council and Alastair’s blog I’m sure!
The town is looking fantastic at the moment, I’ve had so many people mention how pleased they are with the flags and the bunting – I think next weekend is going to be a fantastic celebration for the town.
So how much exactly have you spent cllr jason?
Net figure is difficult to be exact on as ticket revenues are not yet finalised but last figures I saw were forecasting a net position a little below £35k and could be lower if tickets keep selling as well as they have been – I know the proms event is nearly sold out and other sales are all going well. ason may have a more up to date picture.
Iain is right, we won’t know until afterwards, but no more than £1 per person approx.
Can you itemise where the bulk of 35k has gone? It really seems a lot, (from my opinion after running a public event for several years). I would be interested to know.
From memory the two biggest items were security/staffing/health and safety which accounts for about 40% and the screen and stage hire for the abbey meadow which is about another 20% or so. The rest are lots of smaller items such as the flags, publicity materials, buns, printing costs, etc which all mount up.
hope this helps.
I have made all mine from scrap red white and blue material from various sources. Elizabeth Avenue will be bedecked out for the other Elizabeth. Lets hope the sun keeps shining and we can put all the bad news to one side and escape for a bit and party!
I certainly don’t begrudge my £1. I think it will be fantastic and well done to all of those in Abingdon who have worked so hard to organise this. The town is looking fantastic by the way – makes me feel really pleased to have moved here and to be able to take part in Community events.
Julian if you’re that interested you can get the documents from the Town Council, they are public knowledge.
Good luck with your party Alison, if only we had enough hands to make all ours ourselves! I hope the sun shines for Elizabeth Avenue
Thanks Cassandra!
Good work Russ, East St Helens St looks great.
Thanks cllrs Jason, Iain, Unfortunately i cannot get tickets to the Sunday proms which i was interested in going too…all sold out, so well done, but unfortunately i won’t be able to see where some of the money has been spent. I would have liked to see the fireworks, which i did contact the council about doing, being a local firework display company, but they had already contracted an outside company. Oh well….always next Jubilee!
Come to Mondays concert Julian – there are still some tickets available for that one. My family and I are certainly looking forward to watching the London concert on the big screen with our picnic.
Sorry about that Julian but tickets have been on sale for a long time, there were 600 left the other day and we operate on a first come, first serve basis. As you say, always next Jubilee for Her Majesty’s 70 years on the throne!
Given that Abingdon seems to be spending more than all the other towns in the County combined it ought to be impressive!
Businesses and residents are demonstrating that you can achieve a lot without spending thousands. And it looks like ticket sales are reflecting the same thing – the lower cost event has sold out faster than the one the largest amount is being spent on.
@Cllr Jason – which documents should I ask for at the Town Council to get this information. Is it set out in one list or would it involve trawling through different sets of minutes?
Are they not online somewhere?
Can I just say to some of the contributers to this discussion- Bah Humbug!! Why would you begrudge £1 per resident to help the town celebrate this event. There are plenty of things that the council spend money on everyday that are of no benefit to me whatsoever but that’s just the way it is.
I take it you will be spending this weekend in your homes rather than join any of the council run activities, as you object so much to the expenditure.
I know plenty of people who have decided to join in the council activities at the last minute because they have been spurred on by the effort they have seen everyone putting in. It should be a cracking, fun weekend!
I agree with local lass, it is really nice to have something to look forward to this weekend and everyone I speak to is really impressed by all the things which are going on in Abingdon compared to their local town/village.
It is things like this which make me pleased i decided to move to Abingdon in the first place and will stop me from moving on.
It is quite possible to support celebrating the Jubilee, which I do, and at the same time question whether the Town Council is spending money wisely or not.
Every thousand pounds they spend on something unnecessary is a thousand pounds that can’t be spent on something useful.
My plan for this weekend is to spend some time at Town events, some time in the pubs that have got Jubilee things on and some time at home where we are having, amongst other things, a Jubliee Party on our street.
BBC Meridien (Meridian/South) were asking this evening for local places to send in pictures of the Jubilee decorations if they thought that their town was looking good. Maybe someone should show them what a great effort Abingdon has made?
Money has to be spent for people who cannot afford to spend money on things themselves, not everyone has money to spend on bunting and street parties themselves. The ticketed events have been priced low to allow people to attend, but also bring in some income. So much is free though, especially FUN IN THE PARK which is Tomorrow!!!
Also thank you to everyone who has said positive things, I hope the majority of the town is happy and proud. I know we are.
Kat P, why don’t you just email Alice Badcock, the chairman? Rather than filling up this blog with your moans?
@Emma – happy to email anyone who can give me accurate information.
As for ‘moans’, I thought blogs were a place for people to discuss things? Not everyone has the same view on everything!
@Cllr Jason – you again seem to think people have to either ‘happy and proud’ with everything the Town Council is doing or unhappy with everything.
I’m not in either category.
I think it is great that we are having a busy Jubilee weekend and that the town centre looks great too.
I also think you’ve spent far too much, and that you could have dropped the most expensive elements and done some things more cost effectively and the weekend would still be great.
Having just returned from one the best days ever (Jubilee Day in Abingdon)…I don’t think that anything could be said to critiicise it. The whole set of events ran very smoothly and was hugely enjoyable…..this was quite obvious looking at the people around. Well done to the organisers …and to the participants!!!