Category: Business News

THE Mayor of Thame, Adam Buckland, told guests at the official launch of ThameTV on Monday that Thame is leading the way in markets towns in Britain.

“I am always delighted,” he said, “to hear the positive comments about our town from other dignitaries from neighbouring towns and I have spoken in the past about how proud I am of our new state-of-the-art library, the new ‘green’ classrooms at Barley Hill School and the great new football complex at Meadow View Park. All this signals to me and more importantly, to the people living and visiting Thame that we are a town moving forward, that is progressive and is leading the way in market towns in Britain.

“What better way of showing off these amazing new assets to our town, our festivals, our clubs, our markets, our businesses, our people, than to see them all appear on ThameTV?

ThameTV is a great new project for this town that has caught the imagination of businesses and residents alike and delivers a valuable contribution to the community.”

Find out more about ThameTV here

PHOTO: The Mayor of Thame, Adam Buckland with the MD and co-founder of THAMETV, Emma Lowndes

A NEW winter project from Oxfordshire Rural Community Council is aiming to break the rural isolation of people who work from home.

At this time of the year if you work for yourself at home, the sense of being on your own can be overwhelming. Running a business from home is hugely popular in Oxfordshire ? 58% of the people in home-based businesses in rural areas are self-employed ? but people often miss the social and professional buzz of a workplace. Yet there are hundreds of people in our villages who work from home in a spare room or garden shed near you! The answer is to get together.

Since it first opened its doors in the 1920s the ORCC has been helping people in rural Oxfordshire get together to work out their problems from keeping the village shop or pub open to rebuilding village halls and supporting community projects and planning. Now ORCC is encouraging people who work from home to get together to tackle the issues that concern them from social contact to better broadband.

The Adderbury Friday Club which meets every month at The Bell, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this October. Nick Fennell, the founder and organiser of is happy to advise new groups thinking of setting up.

Would you like to hold a local informal get together of people involved in home-based working or businesses in your village? Would you come along to a group that existed in your community, but don?t have time to organise one? If you like the sound of this, and would like to be involved, or simply to be kept in touch with developments, call or email

Catharine Arakelian, Business and Community Links Worker, ORCC
catharine.arakelian@oxonrcc.org.uk 01865 883191

SOURCE: Press release

OXFORDSHIRE has today been recognised by the Government as one of Britain’s most vital centres for economic and business development by being selected to be among the first areas to be Local Enterprise Partnerships, or LEPs.

A total of 56 bids were made and Oxfordshire, with a bid which emphasised its role as a functional economic area in its own right, was one of 24 successful bidders.

LEPs will take on a similar role to that previously undertaken by Regional Development Agencies (RDAs)which will cease to be by March 2012, as announced in the last budget.

The full extent of the changes and how the new system will operate, can be seen HERE

Oxfordshire’s City-Region bid centered on its concentration of high-tech businesses and institutions and its academic strength. It made clear that the county could be at the heart of the UK’s future economy, leading the way in science and research & development.

The bid was strongly and actively supported by a host of top names in Oxfordshire from business, academia, tourism, local government, the health sector and by all of the county’s MPs (Witney MP David Cameron was unable to formally sign the bid because of conflict of interest rules applying to the Prime Minister, but made his support clear).

Dr Martin Dare-Edwards, of Oxfordshire-based company Infineum, and Shadow Chairman of the Oxfordshire LEP, said: “This is fantastic news for Oxfordshire, but the hard work now begins. We need to capitalise on this recognition both in seeking investment to make our vision a reality, and in using it as a springboard to make businesses across the world understand that we’re a hotbed of new technology and new thinking – and that means we’re the gateway to new markets.”

Oxfordshire County Council Leader Keith Mitchell added: “This has been a great example of co-operation between local authorities and business, all striving for the same thing – a brighter future for the county. I’m delighted that hard work has paid off and that Ministers have recognised our potential.”

Big names from the county supporting the bid included Sir Frank Williams (Williams F1), Professor Steve Cowley (CEO of Science Vale UK), Bob Bell (MD of Renault F1), Professors Andrew Hamilton and Janet Beer (Vice-Chancellors of Oxford and Oxford Brookes Universities respectively), Steve Mumford (CEO of software giant Sophos), David Richards (Chairman and CEO of race car specialists Prodrive and chairman of Aston Martin) and Dr Jurgen Hedrich (MD of BMW’s MINI plant in Oxford)

The bid recognised that despite huge strengths in high-tech and academia, Oxfordshire was also disproportionately reliant on public sector employment and was therefore vulnerable at a time of cuts in that sector.

SOURCE: Press release

LOCAL catering firm, Flametree Catering, has been awarded the exclusive contract as Thame Football Club?s official caterer at the new Meadow View Park Stadium opening in early December.

Flametree Catering has been based in Thame for four years using local produce wherever possible as well as training young people in the hospitality industry.

Sarah Whitmore, owner of Flametree Catering says: ?We have built up a reputation throughout the region but there is nothing that delights me more than cooking up a storm for the local community. The new stadium is fantastic and I have had an opportunity to help design the new kitchens.”

Frank Thompson, Events Manager of The Thame Football Partnership says: ?We are delighted to be in partnership with Flametree Catering who will be providing an excellent service to our members as well as our corporate guests and we are looking forward to hitting the ground running on December 1.?

Flametree Catering is also hosting a Gingerbread decorating event, and selling Christmas foodie delights and stocking fillers as it gears up towards Christmas!

www.flametreecatering.co.uk

PHOTO: Sarah Whitmore

THE Mayor of Thame, Cllr Adam Buckland, officially opened the latest business to move into the town centre.

Stoneworld, which supplies natural paving and stone products for both garden and building projects, has been based at Great Milton, near Thame, for many years. Since July, it now has a spectacular new showroom in the old chapel in the Upper High Street, formerly Gallery Hadley.

The new showroom is a collaborative veture between Rob Parker’s Stoneworld, Watermark of Oakley who supply bathroom fittings and equipment, and Park Street Publicity, who have supplied all the paintings, scultures and artwork on display at the showroom.

The design and layout of the showroom, which includes various designs of stone paving set into the floor and innovative steel merchandisers for displaying individual paving and marble designs, is all based on Rob’s own vision of how he wanted to the showroom to look.

Stoneworld, at 43A Upper High Street, Thame, is well worth a visit for some great ideas for using natural stone material in your project, or for ideas for a new bathroom.

THE THAME phone app. developer who was partly responsible for the ithame app, has just seen the release of his latest venture, a spin off from the YouTube phenomena that has been Gap Yah.

Gap Yah’s Orlando, the YouTube phenomenon with over 2.3 million downloads, has just launched an iPhone app, developed by Andy McDonald, of High Street, Thame, which features him visiting remote parts of the world whilst promoting his unique take on life!

iChunder offers fans of Orlando, the uber-posh Fulham-lashed Gap Yah student from the hilarious ?Gap Yah? skit on YouTube, access to unique and humorous content including:

A hilarious soundboard with 26 memorable quotes from Orlando

Behind the scenes video footage from the making of the video of the Gap Yah single, only available through iChunder

Behind the scenes photo gallery

Gap Yah video of the single

Gap Yah video of the original sketch

Access to Orlando?s Facebook and twitter pages

Regularly updated content along with the ability for fans to suggest what else you would like to see on iChunder.

One of the main features of iChunder is the provision of a soundboard that enables customers with iPhones to click on a phrase to hear one of his most popular phrases including ?I Chundered Everywah?, ?Vomcano? and ?I?m on my Gap Yah?.

Users will be able to receive regular mobile updates from Orlando through his Facebook and twitter page and can send feedback to him, all from the iPhone.

Visit the on-line Apple store to get your copy of iChunder.

THAME based truck maker, Daf, is among several UK commercial vehicle manufacturers being investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for suspected price-fixing activity.

See full article by Maggie Hartford for the Witney Gazette:
http://www.witneygazette.co.uk/business/8397548.Truck__cartel__investigation/

THE Southern Oxfordshire LEADER programme is giving local people the opportunity to hear about support and grants of up to

OXFORDSHIRE County Council?s Fire and Rescue Service and Trading Standards have today been informed by a member of the local business community that a cold caller reporting to be from the Fire Service is operating in our area.

The caller who gave his name as John, stated that ?he was producing a booklet for the fire safety department to thank them for their services and asking local businesses to put a personal thank you message in it.?

Initially this was agreed and our contact was then told it would cost

THE innovative market town of Thame, Oxfordshire, was a pioneer with the launch of its own, dedicated news website in 2003, the first to have its own iphone app. earlier this year, and now this modest little community is about to get its very own online video channel.

The Oxfordshire based based film production company, Scissor Paper Stone Ltd is launching an online video production channel intended to showcase businesses, activities and events in and around Thame.

The launch of www.thametv.com will be marked by an innovative video called: “One Voice” where residents of Thame will be given a chance to have their say about the area.

To take part, contact info@scissorpaperstone.tv, join the Scissor Paper Stone Facebook group or look out for flyers in the Town Centre.

Scissor Paper Stone MD, Emma Lowndes, directed the ithame programme and ten spin off videos showcasing local businesses earlier this year. These videos will feature on the website along side the One Voice programme and coverage of several local events such as the Chinnor Beer Festival, and Towersy Festival which take place over this Bank Holiday Weekend.

If you own a business you would like featured on the website, or have an opening or event you would like to promote, please contact emma@scissorpaperstone.tv for further information.