Abingdon becomes a Business Improvement District Further to Abingdon's success in reducing their vacant units, businesses in the town have recently voted in favour of the town centre becoming a Business Improvement District (BID). This means businesses in the area covered by the improvement district will pay money into a pot, which will be spent on improving the town centre with the aim of making it a better place for people to visit and shop. The amount of money a business contributes depends on its size, and some types of business don’t have to pay. In total it will create almost £800,000 over the course of five years, all of which will be invested directly back into the town centre. Abingdon has become the first town centre BID in Oxfordshire and is following in the footsteps 210 BIDs already established across the UK. Christmas parking days As usual the Vale of White Horse District Council is offering free parking days to help encourage people to shop locally in the run up to Christmas. Please help spread the word.
- Abingdon - all day on Saturday 28 November
- Faringdon - all day on Saturday 28 November
- Wantage - all day on Saturday 5 December.
Be alerted You can have things like details of the latest planning applications made in your area sent to your inbox. Visit the Vale website for more information and to sign up www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/news-and-events/keep-me-informed Our survey said... We are currently knocking on doors to ask people to take part in this year's residents’ survey. The Council uses the survey to keep track of what people think of the local area and our services. The researchers carrying out the survey work for M.E.L. Research - they all carry photo ID and an authorisation letter. The advice for anyone who have doubts about somebody on their doorstep is to politely turn them away, close the door and give us a call on 01235 540614. Garden waste and Christmas tree collections over the festive season Like every year there will be no garden waste collections over the Christmas and New Year period so our crews can concentrate on all the extra waste generated over the festive season. This year that means no collections between Friday 25 December and Monday 11 January but there'll be extra-large collections in the spring and autumn to make up for it. Head to www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/gardenwaste to find out more. If you've got a real tree this Christmas and you're one of our garden waste customers, we'll collect it from Tuesday 12 January - just leave it by your brown bin (but please not in it, as it's tricky for the crews to get it out). If you're not a garden waste customer, you can drop your tree off at one of a number of locations around the district for composting. Local plan update The examiner has confirmed that dates for Stage Two of the Local Plan examination will take place at the Beacon in Wantage between 2 February and 18 February. Details of the matters to be considered can be found online at www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/localplan.