Conservatives at the Vale of White Horse District Council have issued a warning over news that work is beginning to redevelop Abingdon’s Old Gaol. The deal, which has taken eight years to come about, has been shrowded in secrecy, plaqued by set backs, and is now set to underdeliver. After all the grand promises for the Lib Dems that the redevelopment would be a cultural hub for the town, Abingdon is set to get more flats and four new restaurants.Abingdon desperately needs a strategy for revitalisation, and instead the Lib Dem-run Council is delivering a large block of flats which won’t be fully opened until after the next World Cup. At the same time the Guildhall is under threat from closure and any future deal over the Abbey Shopping Centre seems a long way off.Leader of the Conservative Group, Cllr Matthew Barber said, “When I was first elected to the Vale, more than seven years ago now, I remember the Lib Dem's great promise of redevelopment of the Old Gaol. Yet has taken this long for work to start, on a secretive deal that many in thetown still don't think is the best they could get.”The Old Gaol site desperately needs to be redeveloped, as a great historical asset to the town, the people of Abingdon have waited far too long to see this dream become a reality, yet will this reality live up to the expectations set so high by the Lib Dems over the past decade? Expectations which they have failed to achieve.