Sir, In December, you kindly published a letter from me in which I described how on June 26, 2014, I had attended a meeting of Abingdon Town Council and formally asked the leader of the town council for details of the spend on contracts for the Guildhall since 2010.
I am pleased to report that in early January, following publication of my letter in the Herald, I finally received a reply to my question. I thought that the information I have unearthed might be of interest to Abingdon residents: In April 2011, Abingdon Town Council received £1.2m from the Vale of the White Horse District Council in relation to improvements to the Guildhall. £180,514 of this money has been spent on making improvements to the historic parts of the Guildhall – leaving a balance of £1,019,486.
As at January 7, the council had spent £85,252 (from another budget) on a range of external consultants and experts to work on various plans to regenerate the 1966 (new) section of the building, and a further £11,352 on “cinema market, research, analysis and advice” – a total of £96,604.
However, to date, no substantial improvements have actually been made to the new part of the complex. I continue to be concerned that the town council is struggling with this major project.
Dr Jim Halliday
Abbey Close
Abingdon
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