Reminder

Don't forget the 2 excellent competitions in the recent newsletter too!!

The adults Hidden Christmas Words - entries to be submitted by 5th January, and entries for the childrens Colouring Competition to be submitted by the 22nd December.

Pop both of them into 18 Mill Road!!!  Prizes for both.

Gardening - The Garden in December

Martin Gulliver writes:  So ... Christmas in the garden, eh??  Let's face it no one wants to garden over Christmas, unless it's digging up fresh parsnips on the day, which I did a few years ago - they tasted fab.  However you will have need to have sown those back in March - so where were you??  How about making a centrepiece for the table?  Buy a small piece of oasis from the flower shop and then cover it in bits and pieces from the garden.  Ivy is a good cover-all, and then add anything with berries...holly, pyracantha, cotoneaster...get them before the birds do!!  Leave the arrangement in a saucer of water so that the oasis soaks it up, and it should last well.

If you really need to get some Boxing day exercise, you can always check the garden over for broken branches that need trimming, weeds that need pulling, empty any bird boxes, and keep bird baths, seed and nut feeders full.

Talking of birds, they will enjoy bacon fat and rind, as well as pieces of cheese - they adore stilton but nothing too salty.  A stroll down to the river on Boxing Day is also nice - feeding the ducks, swans, moorhens...and by the way - if it has red on its beak it's a moorhen, if white, it's a coot.

Finally, if you really want to stay in, at least look out at the garden and make any plans for the new year - what to move, plant, repair, dig up...and make a careful note.

Merry Christmas!

Marcham Road crossing update

Here's the latest update on the Marcham Road crossing, taken from The Abingdon blog:

Councillor Neil Fawcett tweeted today:

Sadly the County Council Cabinet voted unanimously to allow the moving of the Marcham Road crossings in Abingdon

The lights will be moved and was proposed by the developers as a traffic mitigation measure in view of the 159 dwellings on Drayton Road.

For a full report, please visit The Abingdon blog.

Ann Goddard

We're very sad to announce that resident Ann Goddard from Bridges Close, passed away towards the end of last year.  She was a well known and familiar figure on Tithe Farm, where she'd lived for over 20 years, and was often seen around walking her little dog JJ.  Ann was a retired school teacher who previously lived in Drayton, and was the Residents' Association Treasurer until ill health prevented this.  She will be missed.

Abingdon Minor Injuries Unit

A slight change to the latest Newsletter posted recently:

Abingdon Minor Injuries Units times are 8am to 10.30pm - note this is from Saturday 1st November and is for the winter months only.  This service is available 7 days a week.

X-ray opening times at this MIU are as follows: Monday to Friday 9am to 6.30pm, Saturday 10am to 6.30pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm.

AGM - 18th November 2014

Our next newsletter has now gone out and some of you may have already had your copy.  We look forward to receiving your entries for the 2 Christmas competitions!

The last Residents' Association meeting in November was our AGM.  In line with the constitution, all residents who come to the meetings make up the committee.  We should also elect a Chair, a Vice-Chair, a Treasurer and a Newsletter Editor.  Maureen Buckingham will be our Chair, Lorna Downs our Vice-Chair, Anita Wickens the Treasurer and Kay White the Newsletter/Blog Editor.

If anyone should want to see the accounts for last year, these are available by contacting the Treasurer.  Contact details are on the blog and in the newsletter.

We look forward to being able to carry on with our successful revival of the newsletter plus the TFLRA blog.

Christmas Lights

The festive Abingdon lights were turned on at the Extravaganza on Sunday - by Elianne from Mill Road, who was chosen to do the honours from a draw.  Well done Elianne ..... Abingdon will certainly now look pretty for Christmas!!

Gardening - The Garden in October and November

We are well and truly into Autumn now and time to put the garden to bed - to a certain extent.  You can happily cut back herbaceous perennials hard to tidy up the garden, but there is no harm in leaving them as sometimes seed heads can be attractive, especially after a frost, and it gives small insects somewhere to hide.  If you cut back herbaceous geraniums sooner rather than later, they may put on new growth that will last through the winter.

Annuals can be cleared as they start to fade, and replaced with winter flowering pansies, violas, heathers and berried shrubs.  It is worth popping to the garden centre to see what is colourful now - especially berries and leaves - and fill the gaps.  Shrubs will give year round interest if they have berries as well as flowers, ideal for small gardens.  Now is a good time to plant shrubs as the autumnal warmth will settle them in before winter. 

If you have a greenhouse, clean the glass after removing all shading and give the whole structure a good wash and repair, before replacing any plants.  You will be surprised what will survive in an unheated greenhouse, and it is often worth potting up a few tender plants to see if they will last a bit longer under glass.

Lawns can be cut up until the first frost, and Ivy can be pruned.  Bulbs can still be planted, and November is the time for tulips to be planted.

While it is still warm, keep up the weeding and don't forget to water and feed pots and baskets that you have planted for the winter.

Chaunterell Way play area

We had a letter from a resident on Ladygrove:

I am concerned about the childrens play area behind Chaunterell Way.  I take my young grandchildren there most weeks and every time we visit we find that the gate has been left open.  The whole point of it being enclosed is for the safety of the children and also to keep out any dogs that might be out unaccompanied!!

Seems obvious to me that if there is a gate then it should be closed!!

Also a couple of weeks ago I had to clear up a lot of broken glass (bottles) from around the slide and climbing frame.  If a child had fallen over they could have had a very nasty injury.  I don't know how we can stop this happening unless the community police officers maybe patrol a bit more often or maybe residents could keep an eye out and contact the police if there is anyone there making a nuisance of themselves.

Well done on the revised newsletter.

kind regards

The TFLRA have since contacted the Town Council asking if someone could look into this, and maybe put a notice on the gate, and are waiting to hear from them.  We've also asked if the Community Police would like to come to our next meeting.  We will keep you posted.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update - reply from the Town Council

The Town Council replied to us, and have agreed to put a notice on the gate to remind users to close it behind them.  They will also check that the gate is easy to close.  They confirm that they litter pick the area 4 or 5 times a week and say that they should be able to respond to reports of dangerous items within 24 hours or sooner.  They ask also for the co-operation of the community in all this.  The Community Police have agreed to pay attention to the area on their patrols.

Kevin-the-postman

Farewell to Kevin-the-Postman!!  Kevin of Coleridge Drive is retiring at the end of November after delivering mail for 35 years, the last 25 years of which doing the Ladygrove and Tithe Farm deliveries.  We shall miss his cheery daily presence but wish him well for his retirement.

Council's future plans for Vale of the White Horse

If you are interested in learning more about the Council's plans for the future of the Vale, don't forget that there is a public meeting about this in the Guildhall at 6pm on Wednesday 19th November.

AGM

Reminder that the TFLRA AGM will be held on Tuesday 18th November at 7.30pm in the Jephson flats Common Room, Bridges Close.  All residents are welcome!

Update - October 2014

Thank you to all who helped with the first edition of the revived newsletter, including all the deliverers.  Although the first edition was short, we hope that you enjoyed getting this again. Lots of people have told us that they are very pleased to find that the newsletter is to continue. We are hoping to get another, longer, edition out before Christmas, with a competition for the children and a quiz for us older ones!

Sheila and Maureen went to the County Council meeting about the crossing proposals for Ock Street and Marcham Road. Their report is below this article (or click HERE) and we are sure that their disappointment and frustration about the outcome is shared by many on our estates. Work hasbeen started in earnest on the field and sometime soon trees will be felled. While we would welcome people who want to live in our area, there is still considerable anxiety about the problems that their increased traffic will bring.

Next year we will have the added problem of the closure of Steventon Bridge – reports on how long it will be closed vary but 8 months seems about the most optimistic time scale. And work will be started soon on the Milton interchange…… Send the blog your thoughts about all this road work surrounding us.

We are beginning to get pieces for both the newsletter and the blog. Do send us ideas for articles – or write something yourself! And it would be great to have something from the children - drawings and stories and anything else that you want to share with others. See ‘Contacts’ for email, mobile telephone number and addresses.

Remember that you can also advertise your business. A full advert can go on the blog with a short summary in the paper newsletters. £10.00 for residents for the year.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Advertisement - Abingdon Drama Club presents 'The Wrong Goodbye' by Stephen Rees.

Moving the crossing on Marcham Road

Comments to the decision of the Transport Committee - Oxford County Council 9th October 2014

We are very angry, disillusioned, disappointed and sad to have to report that the Oxfordshire County Council decided to accept the proposal from the developers to move the pedestrian crossing on the Marcham Road and to install a new one in Ock Street.

Despite many Councillors and Abingdon Residents speaking against the proposal and making very good points:

• about safety of children crossing
• the Councils 'duty of care' to residents
• air pollution
• congestion
• traffic management and the wider Abingdon traffic crisis
• the fact that it has already been turned down at 3 different Committee levels and the local MP is against the proposal

..... the Transport Committee decided to make their decision on the actual crossing itself without taking any of the fore-mentioned points into account.

In his summing up the Chairman said that he had listened carefully to all the comments, that the crossing does meet National safety guidelines and that he had observed the Drayton Road crossing for twenty minutes one Saturday morning (sic!).  He had to ask himself "do the proposals make the crossing safer and mitigate the traffic on the Drayton Road".  He thought it would, and would therefore support the recommendation.

There was general outrage and much discussion afterwards.  Residents and Councillors are not giving up and are looking into getting legal advice on further steps.  We will keep you posted.

report by Maureen and Sheila

Gardening - The Garden in Autumn

• There will be winter flowering violas and pansies in the Garden Centres now.  Pot them up in hanging baskets and containers for a winter-long display.  Keep them fed and watered.

• Also look our for end-of-season bargain perennials.  They may not be in flower but they can be bought, split and planted out for next year.

• Plant spring bulbs in September at a depth equal to at 4 times their height to ensure flowering, and also consider planting them in layers in containers.  Tulips can wait until November.

• Bring herbs indoors or into a cold greenhouse to ensure a winter supply.  Mint can be propagated by tearing off roots and planting them in pots to ensure fresh new plants for next year.

• Keep trimming lawns and keep weeds down.

• In very wet weather, check containers to make sure they don't get waterlogged.

Grenville Wells

The Residents' Association were very sorry to hear of the recent death of Grenville Wells of Longfellow Drive.  Grenville was well known for his many interests and activities, including work with St John's Ambulance.  He was involved with the Residents' Association for a long time, including a period of helping to run the newsletter.  He will be missed.

Welcome

Welcome to the first edition of the revived newsletter and the brand new Tithe Farm & Ladygrove Residents Blog!!!  The Blog will cover the information in the newsletter but will be updated between editions with news for residents.  You will of course, be able to send your information to the editors to be added to the Blog.  We are aware that not everyone has access to a computer, so if anything significant happens between newsletters, we will organise a short paper 'flyer' round the estates.

The Spring Newsletter said that it would be the farewell edition unless something amazing happened.  Well, something amazing did happen and several new people came forward to help organise a newsletter.  Thank you Kay, Val and Jack.

This short edition is mainly to tell you about our plans.  At the moment, we are aiming to get out 4 paper editions of the newsletter a year - maybe more later if this is successful.

We have enough in the TFLRA account to cover the printing of 2 or 3 shorter newsletters so we won't be collecting subscriptions for the newsletter just yet but will start knocking on doors again in the Spring.  The next couple of newsletters will go to all residents on the estates unless they have said recently that they definitely do not want a newsletter.  We thought that there might be a number of houses that have missed out in the past for a variety of reasons - for example, away when the collectors called or are new residents.

Do let us have your contributions and articles.  If you want to contact us by email, you can do this on tfl_ra@zoho.com  If you would prefer to ring us, then you can get us on 07732251334 and leave a message.  More contact details at the end of the newsletter.

Finally, in the last edition Eleanor Dangerfield thanked many people for their help with the newsletter.  We would also like to thank Eleanor for all her hard work editing and running the newsletter in the past.

We look forward to hearing from residents and hope you will enjoy the new look newsletter and Blog.

News

At the end of August we learned that the County Council must reconsider their earlier decision 'not to proceed with the proposals' to alter the pelican crossing on Marcham Road/install a new pelican crossing on Ock Street.  Apparently they decided to do this after a legal challenge.  They have invited comments on this by 26th September 2014, in time for their meeting on 9th October 2014.  Unfortunately the timing of this newsletter may mean that we haven't brought you this news before the meeting, but is the sort of item that we hope to circulate as 'flyers' in between newsletters in future.

AGM

The TFLRA AGM will be held on Tuesday 18th November at 7.30pm at the Jephson flats Common Room, Bridges Close.  All residents are welcome!

Contact

Please see our Contact page for more details.

Children's Corner - September 2014

Hi everyone

Welcome to our 'Children's Corner'.  In our 'new-style' newsletter we would like to include our young reader and welcome contributions of all kinds ...... drawings, stories, jokes, puzzles, ideas ...... anything that appeals to our young ones, of any age!

from Elianne (age 5)

The picture shown here is by Elianne - well done!!!!

Please send your contributions to 18 Mill Road and one will be chosen to be printed in our next issue.  So ..... come on and get busy!!!

We are looking forward to seeing your lovely ideas.

Many thanks!

Advert - Mathews & Son