Category: Business News

LOCAL Thames Valley sustainable energy company, TV Bioenergy, has been recognised for its path finding and innovative actions in renewable (wood fuel) energy supply and heat generation.
TV Bioenergy received an award of

BUSINESSES in Oxfordshire are being offered a back up system to help them overcome a disaster.

They are being encouraged to sign up for a special text messaging service designed to help people overcome an emergency or disaster.
The City Alert Text System (CATS) is introducing the new service for businesses in Oxfordshire from July 11.

The system is already in operation for residents to give warnings, advice and updates if an emergency happens.
The aim is to help businesses recover as quickly as possible from a disaster. The new Civil Contingencies Act requires councils to promote so-called Business Continuity Management (BCM) within the business community.

John Kelly, Oxfordshire County Council?s Emergency Planning Officer, said: “So far we have held a meeting with OX1 in Oxford and plan to hold other meetings through Chambers of Commerce in other parts of the county during this year. This new channel on the CATS system will give business direct access to emergency information during a major incident and I hope a number take it up.”

Ray Jelf, the County Council?s Cabinet Member for Community Safety said: “This is a useful addition to the existing CATS messaging system for individuals. I trust that businesses will take advantage of the opportunity to join the system first introduced in Oxfordshire in 2003 as the first area covered in the UK.”

FOLLOWING a survey carried out by Oxfordshire County Council, businesses are being offered advice packs regarding making provision for disabled people following the new Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
Under the Act, since October 2004, service-providers have had a duty to make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities. If they don?t do this, then people with disabilities who feel they are being discriminated against could take a civil action against them.
The survey, which was carried out in Banbury, but could apply to any town. It showed that while some businesses in the town provide excellent facilities, others are less enlightened, despite the advent of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
The service-provider cannot wait until a person with disabilities complains before making adjustments. Under the Act the service-provider must anticipate the needs of people with disabilities.
Easy improvements could include putting D-shaped handles on doors, creating larger parking bays for blue badge holders or even just training staff to be more considerate.

Marks & Spencers, Debenhams, Woolworths were three retailers identified in the survey as providing an excellent service to people with disabilities.
Both Marks & Spencers and Debenhams offered special changing rooms, wide aisles, lifts with raised lettering on the control buttons and they had very helpful staff.
Woolworths was easy to get around because of the red flooring which people with poor sight can use to find their way through the store easily without walking into shelves.

However, some other shops featured changing rooms for people with disabilities that were full of stock or had such cluttered aisles that they were difficult for people to negotiate.

The survey ? carried out last summer by Julia Houghton, a day service worker from the Greenwood Day Services for older people with learning disabilities, and service-user Ruby Smillie – was mostly carried out in the Castle Quay shopping centre, but the duo also visited other services around the town, such as doctors? surgeries, dentists, pubs and eating-places.

Following the survey, a team led by Pauline Turner, manager of Greenwood Day Services, Banbury, met officers from Cherwell District Council.

For more information about making shop and services more accessible to people with disabilities please ring John Gregory, access officer at Cherwell District Council, on 01295 221630.

THE newest retailer to establish itself in this thriving market town, presenting a most individual and unique shopping experience, has opened its doors in the Buttermarket.

Kismet Jewellers, run by husband and wife team, Matthew and Yvette Cundy, who live in Thame, can be found where The Flower Studio was until recently and the refit, using the company colours of black and white, has been tastefully and sympathetically carried out in this historic old building.
But there is nothing old fashioned about the Cundy?s concept of selling contemporary, modern jewellery that can be interactively designed with the customer on the premises using the very latest Computer Aided Design software.

The customer who wants something unique and precious to them, their loved-one or perhaps a valued Corporate client, can choose from a number of bands, setting styles, stone types, shapes and orientations to come up with something really special to them. Alternatively, clients can have a piece designed or remodelled around a stone or old piece of jewellery they already own.

Whatever their vision, Kismet can come up with a dream piece for any client and have it made at its own workshop in South Molton Street, just off Bond Street in London.

Kismet holds one of only a handful of franchises for the prestigious Montblanc brand of pens, cuff links and note books as well as top watches made by the Swiss makers, Hublot. They also buy and sell pre-owned quality watches including those made by Rolex and will also undertake repairs and valuations of all types of jewellery.

Among the many exciting quality objects offered for sale by Kismet are Amundsen Oslo?s Polar watches, the company set up by a descendant of the Polar explorer and which have all been taken to the polar regions and thoroughly tested at a temperature of 90 degrees below freezing,

On the jewellery side of the business, Kismet is the only outlet in the country for the exclusive range of ?My Pearl? ladies? jewellery from Switzerland, just one of a selection of fabulous jewellery sourced from craftsmen and women throughout the world by the Cundys, who between them have 35 years experience in the jewellery trade.

For more information about the almost limitless services and wonderful objects of adornment available from Kismet Jewellers, visit Matthew and Yvette at their shop in Thame or visit their website at www.kismetjewellers.com

THE winner of the ‘Try Thame First’ radio campaign, organised by 21st Century Thame, in conjunction the Mix 96 radio station, has been spending his

THE winner of the ‘Try Thame First’ shopping competition, organised by 21st Century Thame and Mix ’96, has been spending his vouchers in the town.
Proud dad, Keith Davison, who was made redundant by Memec of Thame, shortly before winning

A NEW Business club, which will meet at The Springs Hotel and Golf Club, in North Stoke, is to be launched
on Tuesday, June 14.

The event will take place between 7pm and 9pm and will include tea, coffee, juice and biscuits, and a quest speaker. The club will meet every second Tuesday in the month.
Keep an eye on www.tuesdaybusinessclub.co.uk
for updates.

A THAME business that supplies cake decorating equipment all over the world, is celebrating 20 years in business this week.
Norma Laver and Jenny Walker, started the business in just one small part of Jenny’s father’s ‘Open All Hours’ type shop, at 18 Upper High Street, Thame.
Since then the business premises have grown to include numbers 19 and 20, and they employ 14 local people.
These days, mainly through their website, A Piece of Cake sells to places as far-a-field as India, Japan, North Korea, Israel and Croatia.
Yesterday, Tuesday, all the staff enjoyed a piece of special birthday cake washed down with Bucks Fizz.

WHEN it comes to choosing a taxi or chauffeured car for personal or business needs, there isn?t usually very much to choose between them. They are mostly punctual enough, polite and convenient. But one pioneering operator offers something very special to the client looking for an INTERNAL experience as well as just the external experience of a journey or a tour site-seeing.
Russ Hewer, who has been a Buddhist practitioner for the last nine years, runs Spirit Cars, a new and exciting chauffeured tour and taxi company based in Thame, which offers Life Coaching on the go!
The client gets a carefree journey, whether it?s a simple run to the airport, a day-long tour of Oxford, London or the Cotswolds, or a week-long tour of the important spiritual sites of Britain like Glastonbury, Avebury and Iona, similar to the one he recently took with six Canadian women tourists.
Whilst using his extensive knowledge of the UK, including more unusual visitor attractions like Burgh Island, in Devon, where they hold ?Flapper? evenings in an authentic Art deco setting, Russ listens and talks to his clients, leading them on an inner journey to feel more relaxed at work, improve personal relationships, go for a career change or help make their dreams a reality.
Russ has a variety of vehicles including a people carrier for up to six passengers and is currently offering a special Two-for-One deal for airport transfers to the first 100 bookings made on-line via the website, www.spiritcars.co.uk

Anyone who is looking for an interesting or unusual experience for Corporate clients, or indeed a personal journey in both senses of the word, can find out more about Russ and Spirit Cars, by visiting the website and taking the first step to a more fulfilling personal and work life journey.

Photo: Russ Hewer of Spirit Cars (right) with clients at a recent trip to Burgh Island

A powerful new Network to connect and promote the county?s Town Chambers and similar business groups has been launched.

The Oxfordshire Town Chambers Network aims to promote its member groups and help them share ideas and experience of the work each of them is doing in towns across the county.

The Network has contacted groups in: Abingdon, Banbury, Bicester, Burford, Carterton, Chipping Norton, Didcot, Faringdon, Henley, Kidlington, Oxford, THAME, Wallingford, Wantage, Watlington, Witney, Woodstock. Eleven groups, with 705 members between them, have already agreed to join the Network.

It has been launched with a web portal to promote the Network, its member organisations and their websites at www.oxfordshiretownchambersnetwork.co.uk or www.otcn.co.uk.

One of the founder members of the Network, John Naish, says: ?Across Oxfordshire, Chambers and similar business groups, all involving volunteers, are doing excellent work promoting their towns, and the businesses in them. They are also involved in a wealth of valuable work from lobbying decision-makers to supporting activities like CCTV, Shopwatch, Xmas Lights, local schools, and running networking events for their member businesses.

?What?s been lacking in Oxfordshire is an effective way to link these organisations together, to help them share their experiences and learn from the way their colleagues in other towns are tackling key issues. The Oxfordshire Town Chambers Network puts that right.?

The Network aims to help its member organisations:
? To share ideas and best practice
? To share experience of common issues that local Chambers and similar groups are tackling in their towns in Oxfordshire
? To develop a web portal as a focal point for the activities of the Network members, linked to the websites of those Chambers or business groups that have their own
? To promote the principle of Town Chambers and similar business groupings
? To promote within the Network, the activities of each of the member groups
? To engage members of these groups in a more cohesive way in lobbying local authorities and other decision makers.

David Simpson, Chairman of Bicester & District Chamber of Commerce, says: ?I do believe that there are many benefits to be gained by developing such a Network. The most obvious being an exchange of ideas and experiences of what each group does. There is also the wider issue of being able to truly represent our member organisations and their members in Oxfordshire, at a county and regional level.?

A number of Oxfordshire businesses and organisations have also agreed to support or work with the Network. Business Link Partnership Manager, Philip Wootton, says: ?I very much welcome this Network as a positive step to link the Town Chambers and other business groups in Oxfordshire.?