Category: Missed a ThameNews story?

 

NEW PICTURE: ONE of the villages devastated in Saturday’s earthquake in Nepal, is the Sherpa village of Thame, the childhood home of Tenzing Norgay, who was (with Sir Edmund Hillary) one of the first men to climb Mt Everest.

Thame and its neighbouring Thameteng are small Sherpa villages in Namche VDC of the Solukhumbu District in Nepal. These were the last year-round villages on the salt trading route that existed between Tibet, Nepal and India.

Thame.Net has been in contact with a local journalist and trekking guide in Thame, Nepal, who has reported terrible damage to buildings and many injured villagers, including broken bones, although thankfully, no fatalities. Here are some of Shankar Dahal’s and other’s in Thame’s heard-rending tweets:

” Roads to village r linked, but nbdy can walk, bz (because) of rock falling and landslides; roads are unsafe and blocked. No option 4 heli.”

” I am trying my support to the helpless ppl in Thame. They are in critical condition”

annie garneau to @annishky @Dahal_Shankar @editorsonja: ” @ApaSherpa is in namche/thame and needs food water shelter first aid hygiene products, all is burried”

From Apa Sherpa @ApaSherpa: “Thame Nepal very bad. Need food, tents, tarps, sleeping bags. Please donate apasherpafoundation.org help Thame”

Saurav Dhakal @DhakalSaurav: “Village of @ApaSherpa Thame. They have NOTHING! No food or shelter.

This facebook entry from Mark Williams, who is stranded in Thame: “The villages of Thame and Upper Thame have been devastated. So far not one relief mission has arrived and all the homes are uninhabitable. It’s now cold, and raining. The local population desperately need better quality temporary shelters and much more help. So far at least seven empty commercial helicopter flights have flown in to the Yeti Mountain Home luxury hotel to evacuate its customers but not one brought anything. ” (The photographs are courtesy of Mark)

Because Thame is so remote, and the Nepalese government is overwhelmed by the disaster, such villages are slow to receive help. Thame.Net is talking to the Nepalese embassy and Oxfam to see if there is anyway the people of Thame in Oxfordshire can directly get help to Thame in Nepal. In the mean time, we are asking that people take donations of either cash or books and DVDs to the Oxfam Bookshop in Thame, for their Nepal disaster appeal, which will help the people of Nepal generally. Also, Marianne Parslow  deputy Bookshop Manager, has said that if people would like to donate blankets to the Oxfam clothes shop in Cornmarket, these will be sold and the money sent to the Nepal Earthquake appeal.

But if you would like to help Thame in Nepal more directly in the meantime, you may donate to the Nepal Earthquake Support Fund which has been set up at the request by the local monastery and nunnery  to provide tents and essentials the Thame area: Visit LINK HERE for details, or visit the Apa Sherpa Foundation blog page and donate there: LINK HERE

Follow the Thamenews.net facebook page  for updates from Thame, Nepal, and Thamenews on twitter @ThameNews

THAME’S Labour candidate for the Parliamentary elections in May, has hit back at remarks made the Conservative candidate, John Howell, about young people and their political leanings.

Referring to a report on this website of a public meeting at Thame Town Hall last Wednesday, called by John Howell, the Conservative candidate, Sam Juthani, the Labour candidate said:

“Last week, John Howell made the incredible claim “young people are generally socialist but they grow out it!” He was trying to defend his extremely poor reception at the Lord Williams School hustings, in which I received 65% of the students’ votes, whilst he slumped to just 10.8%.

“There are a number of problems with this.

“Firstly, it is hugely disrespectful to the audience that voted in the hustings. They were engaged in politics and were active questioners- the exact opposite of what young people are often criticised of being. They did not give any of us an easy time, and John Howell is wrong to dismiss them.

“Secondly, it is disrespectful to the electorate in the constituency. The voters of Thame, regardless of their age, deserve to have their questions answered on their terms, not to be dismissed because their views might be inconvenient.

“And finally, it is disrespectful to all those who believe that Britain can be better than it has been over the last few years. Socialists like Nye Bevan created the NHS. Socialists outlawed gender and racial discrimination in jobs (something incidentally that Nigel Farage wants to repeal) and helped make bigger strides towards equality for LGBT people than anyone else. That’s because Socialists, like me, believe that we should be treated equally.

“John Howell’s dismissive behaviour is something we have seen all too often from him. As any constituent who contacts him to disagree with him has found, this will not be a surprise, and it’s something I have previously challenged him on, over the Elms. The audience at Lord Bill’s clearly thought so. Their vote of confidence in me is just a confirmation that my approach, which involves proper engagement with my constituents, will ensure that I would make the best MP for Thame.”

THAME ATTRACTS THE FOREIGN MEDIA

Last Thursday, Sam Juthani and District Council and Town Council Labour candidate, Mary Stiles, attracted the attention of the foreign media when they had a stall out in Montesson Square, in Thame, to engage voters. (See photo)

Sam was interviewed by Mr Yasuo Naito, London Bureau Chief of the Japanese newspaper ‘Sankei’ (http://www.sankei.com/). Its circulation is two million per day and nine million daily Internet viewing. Yasuo spent half a day following Sam around as he campaigned at the stall and out canvassing residents, and interviewed in great detail.

Sam said: “Mr Yasuo Naito was interested in the nature of our democracy, and in me as a young candidate.
I was also interviewed by Stephen Beard of ‘Marketplace‘, the flagship business and economic affairs show broadcast on American NPR (National Public Radio)- a network of over 500 public radio stations with a regular audience of around 10m people. He interviewed me about the failure of this Government’s economic record, Labour’s policy to abolish non-dom status, and the potential threat of withdrawing from the EU.”

THAME’S Conservative candidate for the General Election found himself talking mostly to the converted on Wednesday evening, when he held a public meeting at Thame town hall, attended by 16 people, the majority being members of the Conservative Association, Conservative District Councillors and Thame’s Conservative County Councillor.

But the make-up of the mostly invited audience did not mean however, that John Howell and his panel of Conservative candidates for both the Parish and the District Council elections, were given an easy ride.

When he was asked if he was concerned that Thame’s Neighbourhood Plan was being ‘nibbled at the edges’, (question from Thame.Net) particularly with the new employment complex on the by-pass exceeding the size allowed for in the Neighbourhood Plan, the Tesco store application for a large supermarket on what is reserved as ’employment land’ (the DAF site) and disquiet over The Elms plan, he replied: “I am behind the Neighbourhood Plan and support entirely the application process going through its normal course.”

When asked if he would be attending planning application meetings and   ‘speak up for Thame’ (Ed.) John replied: “I will keep my counsel about what I will be doing.”

He said that he thought the Neighbourhood Planning system was ‘working well’ and that he was glad to see Chinnor working on its Neighbourhood Plan.

Barry Brown, a resident of Towersey, was critical of the Conservative party’s campaign and asked:  “With such positive news, costs down, unemployment down etc, how is that we (the Conservatives) are still only neck-and-neck with a man who has never held a proper job in his life and the election campaign is being dominated by a ‘chit of a girl’ from Scotland?  Cameron should be ‘flying in’! We’re doing a very bad job!”

John Howell replied: “It’s because of the polling methods and their range, which some put us 4-5% in front, and others 1% behind. I cannot understand why the poll predictions differ so much from the Bookmakers who put Cameron remaining as Prime Minister. I don’t myself spend much time analysing the polls.”

The questioner continued: “At a national level with regard to TV etc we did not hear the Conservatives coming on the box until John Major the other night. From what they see on the TV, the people out in the sticks think that the Conservatives are running a bad campaign, scratching around for half a dozen seats.”

John Howell replied that he didn’t think the situation was as bad as Mr Brown painted it, but that he would feed back his comments.

There was mention of Government Minister Grant Schapps and his recent ‘difficulties’ and a lot of blame put on ‘left wing media‘ including the BBC. John Cotton said that there were both left and right wing segments of the media and that complaining is seen as winjing and detracts from your message. “We need to continue with positive messages,” he concluded.

Q; Will we have to have more houses?

There was much discussion about future housing numbers for the district and particularly about securing the required 40% of ‘affordable’ homes from any new development, and the future of ‘Localism’ and Neighbour Plans. In answer to a question about whether there were likely to be changes to, or relaxation of the Localism Bill to encourage more housing to be built, John replied: “Probably, yes’. But I would think that any changes made would have to be done with the permission of the communities affected, about where the new houses are going to be located. There would be no setting of numbers by Government.”

John Cotton, Conservative Leader of the Council at SODC, said he was pleased to hear that there would be no ‘top down’ imposed housing numbers but that he was concerned that SODC was being forced to approve planning permissions because of pressure to comply with government rules on a ‘Five Year Land Supply’ which went against the idea of no ‘top down’ imposed housing numbers. He was anxious to know whether a next Conservative government would make sure local people determined the numbers.

John Howell responded by welcoming moves to introduce a  “community right of appeal” into the planning system (Ed. whereby a community could appeal against developers for things such as insufficient infrastructure, non-compliance with government guidance and non-compliance with a local neighbourhood plans – See LINK .  John Howell added that the gross figures (identified in the recent SHMAR) did not invalidate the Five Year Land plan, but that: “We do need to look at the definition of ‘A Five Year Land supply’.

Q: Why HS2 through the Chilterns?

A Chinnor resident asked John Howell why the HS2 route was going through the Chilterns and properties were having to be ‘Compulsory purchased‘ when it might be better and cheaper to run it alongside the M40.

John Howell replied that in his opinion it was the best route, and that he supported HS2 because in his view is the best means of transferring growth from the South to the North of the country. The questioner suggested that it would be better and cheaper to run the route across the Chilterns through tunnels, because landowners would not have to be compensated, and he wanted John to lobby for that to happen.  John Howell replied that many people would object to the route following the M40 and doubted it would be cheaper. He added that he was happy for the questioner to lobby for the route to go underground but that the figures would have to be looked at very closely.

Q: Are the Conservatives serving the young?

Thame resident, Richard Jefferies, referring to John Howell’s poor showing in a Poll held following a hustings at Lord Williams’s school in Thame, with year 12s and 13s (see LINK), asked him if the results indicated that he (John) did not ‘have his finger on the pulse’ with the younger members of the constituency?

John replied that he had tried a number of ways to engage young people, including going into schools and talking in assemblies. He said that he had enjoyed the Thame hustings but was not surprised at the result because, he said: “Young people generally tend to be more socialist-minded but they generally grow out of it!”

Jeannette Matelot Green, currently an Independent Town Councillor, is standing as Conservative candidate in the District Council Elections. She said that she did not think young people looked at political colours, and that because she had chosen young people’s charities – The Skate Park and Young Carers – to support during her Mayoral year, when they see her name, young people would vote for her.

Nigel Champken Woods said that he and other councillors had been to Lord Williams’s school to discuss such things as how planning works, and that he agreed that young people ‘probably do change’. David Dodds, also a town councillor and a district councillor candidate, said: “I think we have been very responsive to young people and provide them with a great deal in the form of grants for sports, for music, for bursaries etc. We cherish our young.”

Q: What can we do about the difficulty of affordable housing in this constituency?

There was much discussion on this subject around what is meant by ‘affordable?’ ; that we need not just one and two-bed homes because there are a number of families needing homes too; that we need basically ‘more’ houses to mitigate market forces of supply and demand keeping prices high. David Dodds was angry about, as he put it, the way the ‘Angus Firearm’ building ‘snuk’ in, supposedly as smaller, affordable flats, but now the price was over £260,000.

John Howell said that he had asked SODC to ‘get on with building more homes’ but that ‘we need to insist that these include a number of affordable and ‘low market’ housing. He also mentioned the Government’s new Help-to-buy ISA which will, he said, help young to buy a house.

Town Council candidate, and current town councillor, Mike Dyer, said that the Thame Neighbourhood Plan says ‘must’ include affordable homes, and that means on the actual development site, not somewhere else, and that the town council would continue to ‘police’ that.

John Cotton said that there was a balance to be struck as ‘viability‘ was important for developers, who would not build on a site if they couldn’t make a profit. He said that what was in a Neighbourhood Plan was not a reason to refuse an application, but was a ‘material consideration’.

Q: Any chance of a change of bias in education funding from urban to rural schools?

John Howell replied that he agreed funding had been more favourable to cities and that he had lobbied on behalf of rural schools, and that the government had agreed to ‘re-adjust’ the system to make it fairer. Education had, though, he said, been underfunded by local authorities too.

Q: Is it possible to ask local businesses to contribute to a subsidy for local buses, which since they were cut, leave towersey residents dependent on the buses, very limited access to Thame for the shops etc?

County Councillor Nick Carter said that the problem was that some of these rural routes had hardly any passengers and so just were not economical to run without county council subsidies. He accepted that these buses were ‘a life line’ for some people.

“It’s a case of use it or lose it, said John Howell.

Sonja Francis, who is a member of Thame4Business, part of the 21st Century Thame Partnership, said that she would take the suggestion back to the business group. Nigel Champken Woods described how in Singapore, he experienced a system of ‘pick up taxis‘ where taxis would run up and down a particular route and people could just flag them down and share the cost.”

Q: We need to provide something for the young people; why can’t we build something like a cinema on the Cattle Market site?

David Dodds said that whatever was built on that site, and the Neighbourhood Plan says a ‘mixed use site’, would need to be economically viable. He added that if a cinema was commercial, it would have been done. He mentioned Thame’s cinema Club, Thame Cinema 4 All, which was successful, but said that he had hardly ever seen a young person in the audience.

John Howell said that he would write to the Cinema companies.

Mike Dyer said that any idea that came forward would be looked at by the town council. David Dodds said that any plan would be ‘choked’ if it did not include more parking.

Q: A Danish Member, who lives in Thame, asked on behalf of a constituent, about the rules for child benefit which mean that there is no benefit for married couples for a two-year-old, which meant that she could not afford to go back to work.

“The Conservatives will increase provision for child-care,” replied John. “It is part of the development of employment that we also provide women with the ability to get the child-care they can afford.”

Nick Carter responded: “Cameron says he intends to lower the age at which child-care will be available and give 20 plus hours of free child-care per week. How the country will be able to afford that I don’t know.” (see LINK )

The meeting ended with a member congratulating John Howell for what he had done over the last five years.

 

 

 

 

THAME is looking a lot smarter this week, after around 200 local people took part in Thame Tidy Day 2015, on Sunday (April 19), clearing paper, metal, drinks cans, crisp packets, carpet underlay, graffiti, weeds, garden waste and all sorts of discarded rubbish to be found in some of its streets and recreation areas.

The event was Co-ordinated by Sue Martin-Downhill of Thame4Business, part of 21st Century Thame, who was delighted with the response for help this year.

Speaking after the event, Sue said: “Thame Tidy was a great success with the whole of the Phoenix Trail being cleared of litter and many residential areas cleared too. I’d like to thank everyone who joined in; there must have been up to 200 people involved! Particular thanks go to the men from Biffa who cleared the Scout Hut Car Park for us when our skips didn’t arrive!”

Sue extended her thanks to ASM recycling, The fire service, Racquets Fitness Centre, Angela Wilson of Lea park Residents Association, Colin and Steve and all the scouts, Adam and his family, those from Waitrose and others on that team. Sue’s right-hand woman, Maggie, who helped despite only having lived in Thame for few months, was especially singled out for thanks by Sue.

The areas in the town covered were the Phoenix Trail, Travelodge car park, the Cattlemarket car park, Clarendon Drive – including weeding the alley way leading to the Moats, various other parts of Lea Park including some graffiti removal and other residential streets and alleys throughout Thame, as well as Thame Cricket Ground.

Thame’s Cornerstone Church turned out to contribute to Thame Tidy Day by tackling a house that a family with young children were moving into.

Simultaneously, the annual ‘Moreton Muckout’ took place and the rubbish collected there included a road sign, a traffic cone, a kettle (no lead), a hub and a wheel.

But Sue doesn’t want this community spirit’s affect to have just lasted for the Thame Tidy Day: “If anyone in Thame is going for a walk and would like to take a litter picker and a bag, and pick up litter throughout the year, then please do speak to me,” she added, “as we have litter pickers and gloves available to borrow all through the year! The town centre is litter picked regularly but the alleys are not.

“So, we could improve the look of our town throughout the year with a little walk now and again.”