Category: Missed a ThameNews story?

THE stars were out in force in Thame recently as the children from St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School entertained their audience with an amazing performance of Merlin and the Mystical Unicorn.

Children from Years five and six were fortunate to work with the talented staff from Stagecoach Thame, learning all aspects of musical theatre from lighting design to technical elements of dance, drama and singing.

“The children are extremely privileged to have had this opportunity to work with Stagecoach’s Ashley and Nicky who gave their time and expertise to the school,” said Paul Roberts, Principal of St Joseph’s. “Their enthusiasm and encouragement has been inspirational to our troupe of aspiring actors.”

Photo: Some of St Joseph’s School cast of Merlin and the Mystical Unicorn

FOLLOWING the news that Oxfordshire County Council is reviewing the provision of Childrens’ Centres across the County with a view to cost cutting, the Red Kites Childrens’ Centre in Thame could be under threat – even though it recently passed an OFSTED inspection with flying colours and awarded ‘Very Good’ status.

Reporting to the town council’s Community, Leisure and Recreation Committee, Cllr Mary Stiles, who is a Trustee of the Red Kites Childrens Centre, said that hardship was being felt by some parents because the wait to receive benefits for first time users is now six weeks. However, The Sharing Life Trust and the Thame Food Bank is helping these parents with cookery classes and provisions.

One of the proposals put forward by the County Council is to amalgamate provision for 0 – 19 year-olds in ‘hubs’, to save £5 million, providing a service for only the most serious cases of need, instead of offering a universal service, which Cllr Stiles said: “….helps prevent problems down the track.”

THE FUTURE  FOR THAME’S CENTRE

The county council is meeting with its partners over the summer to come up with three possible models for the future which would then go out for consultation, but it has emphasized that any provision will only be made for extreme cases. A double blow for Thame is that if the Thame centre’s building is closed, it would have to be sold and the money that the government gave to set it up originally, would go back to the government.

Cllr stiles also reported that the administration of local Health Visitors is changing from Buckinghamshire to Oxfordshire and that the transfer of data could take some time as it had to be done by hand because the two computer systems are not compatible.

A CENTRE RUN BY VOLUNTEERS?

A meeting is planned for October to finally decide the future of Children’s Centre which would be attended by a representative of Thame Town Council. In the meantime, parents attending the centre are being encouraged to take part in a course to become volunteers at the centre, and the first two will be fully qualified by September. The training of volunteers, suggested Cllr Stiles, was a good preparation for the work place for parents, as well as being good for the centre.

Cllr Chamken Woods, the Chair of the CLR committee, thanked Cllr Stiles for her report adding: “I am very worried that we may lose this superb service.” Cllr Stiles replied that she was hopeful that a way could be found for the Red Kites Centre to remain open in some form, perhaps run completely by volunteers, like some libraries in the county are now.

The Haddenham community has voted very decisively in its local referendum on Thursday, July 16, when 86% of those voting said YES to the village’s Neighbourhood Plan.

This means that, subject to final approval by a Government inspector, AVDC will need to reference Haddenham’s Neighbourhood Plan when it considers planning applications in and close to the village in the coming years.

The referendum was the culmination of a great deal of effort over the last two years to consult with local residents through public meetings, workshops and smaller scale group discussions, to build a consensus view of how Haddenham should develop over the next 18 years.

The final Neighbourhood Plan was compiled by a team led by Andy Fell on behalf of Haddenham Parish Council, with assistance from the Village Society and other residents.

Once the Plan had been approved by an independent inspector and AVDC, and offered up to Haddenham residents in the referendum, the Parish Council had to remain impartial as a corporate body.

The ‘YES Campaign’ was therefore driven by local residents, led by Keith Milmer, in the face of determined efforts by land development company Lightwood Strategic, which sought directly to persuade the Haddenham community to vote NO.

Keith said: “after so much effort from Andy Fell and the NP team to consult with residents and then spend many hundreds of hours compiling the Plan, it was depressing to see an external development company with major financial interests in the outcome of the referendum seeking to influence what should have been a very local decision making process.”

He continued: “A small but significant group of residents also campaigned for a NO vote, which is perfectly reasonable in a democratic process of course. The most important issued for me was ensuring that debate among the local community remained focused on the planning issues and not allowed to deteriorate into personal attacks, simply because individuals held differing views. Some campaign literature sought to raise question marks about the integrity of the NP team, and this was highly undesirable.”

“Haddenham is now a very large village but it maintains a close-knit community spirit. So it was very important that robust debate did not damage relationships going forward. Now that the referendum is behind us, I hope sincerely that this has been achieved.”

The figures are:
Turnout was 1989 out of 3,877 (51.3%)
YES vote: 1712 (86.1%)
NO vote: 273 (13.7%)
There were four spoiled ballot papers.

Photograph:
Keith Milmer, leader of the successful ‘Yes Campaign’

SOURCE: Contributed by Haddenham.net

A Thame man has been arrested on suspicion of assault and criminal damage, after a 48 year-old woman sustained a minor injury to her hand following an incident with a knife on Sunday, June 12.

The 25 year-old man has been bailed until July 29.

A pro Tesco support group in Thame is claiming that town centre traffic congestion poses a far greater threat to the future sustainability of shops and businesses in the town, than a proposed Tesco store in Howland Road.

Thame resident, Rachel Lester, who is the Secretary of ‘Thame Needs Tesco’ (TNT), said in a statement today: “The town is unprepared to deal with the huge amounts of extra traffic that will be caused by the 775 new homes already allocated for the town over the next 12 years.

“Thame town centre is already congested at peak times with traffic at a standstill and very limited parking. We are concerned about how much worse that could be with foreseeably hundreds of extra vehicles in the centre as new families move into Thame.”

The statement quotes Peggy Long, who spent 24 years as Thame’s traffic warden, agreeing with Rachel: “Parking has become an issue in Thame and I really do fear for the town unless something is done to improve the situation,” she said. “We are already bursting at the seams and there’s absolutely no way the current system can deal with the hundreds of extra vehicles that are heading our way in years to come.”

TNT says that its members believe that a possible consequence of this situation is that people could actively avoid the centre because of the congestion and shop elsewhere, in more car-friendly towns with better parking. As a result, they say: “Local shops risk losing custom and footfall due to the lack of infrastructure needed to deal with housing growth.”

“Members of TNT care passionately about Thame and the continued success of its independent businesses, but we also want the choice and convenience a new Tesco would bring,” continued Rachel Lester.

“The traffic reality could be even worse if South Oxfordshire District Council increases the number of new homes for Thame as an outcome of its ongoing review of the Local Plan, with no current plans on the table for major road or parking improvements in the town centre.”

The counter group to TNT, Thame Centre First, takes a different view. It states on its website: “Thame does not need another large supermarket. Despite the town growing, an independent survey concluded Thame needs an additional 600sqm of new retail space by 2027, this space is equivalent to two tennis courts. The proposed superstore is more than four times this size. The bottom line is that Thame and the surrounding area can not support a large out of town supermarket and our High Street shops.

“A large superstore on the edge of Thame would undermine the town’s vitality and the viability of town centre shops. Just as the current town centre supermarkets provide an important anchor role in bringing shoppers into the town centre, an out of town supermarket would draw these shoppers away. This would be detrimental to the overall sustainability of the town and would reduce the choice of services and facilities available to the community.”

Find out more about TNT (Thame Needs Tesco) see their Facebook page HERE and about Thame Centre First HERE