Category: Missed a ThameNews story?

THAME Town Council has announced its choice of a new Town Clerk to replace Helen Stewart BEM, who is retiring at the end of March.

Graham Hunt will be taking over the role which includes that of ‘Responsible Financial Officer,’ from April 1. Graham has 11 years’ experience in similar roles for other town councils, including as CEO of Newbury Town Council, and before that he worked in Management and IT for Vodafone.

He is also the Larger Councils Champion and Co-ordinator of the Larger Local Councils Network for the Society of Local Council Clerks.

Graham is married with four daughters, the youngest who is aged 20. He is a keen cyclist and dog walker and has expressed his appreciation of the friendly welcome from all the people he has met so far in Thame – from the lady picking up litter in one of the housing estates to the gentleman pleased with his purchase of pork chops from a local butcher!

In a statement, Thame Town Council said:  “There has been a fair bit of learning throughout his career and Graham is a strong believer that the learning never stops. He is sure that his wide-ranging skills and experience will be used well in his support for the Town Council and the community it serves.”

THE number of shops which are lying empty in South Oxfordshire’s market towns has fallen over the last year, according to a recent survey.

Thame currently has the lowest shop vacancy rate in the district with just six out of the town’s 186 premises lying empty.

The annual South Oxfordshire Retail Vacancy Survey, a count of the number of empty shop units on a single day each year, took place in January and revealed that an average of just five per cent of retail units across Henley, Thame and Wallingford were vacant.

The low rate in South Oxfordshire compares very well to the national average, recorded by the Local Data Company, of 13.2 per cent of units vacant (measured in December 2014).

Cllr John Cotton, Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “While others are clearly struggling our close co-operation with businesses, town councils, and the wider community, has seen our market towns continue to thrive, with low shop vacancy rates and fast take up of premises that do become available. We’ll continue to do all we can to help new businesses take up these empty premises and ensure that our towns keep flourishing.”

THREE horses were found dead by fire-fighters after they had contained a fire that broke out at a Stud in Aston Rowant in the early hours of today (16/03/15).

Four fire engines from Thame, Watlington, and Slade Park rushed to a stable block on fire at Aston House Stud, Aston Rowant at 4am this morning, where they found a well-established fire and quickly got to work with high pressure hose reels and main fire fighting Jets.

This quick response by the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service prevented the fire from spreading to the adjacent buildings and allowed for some of the horses to be lead to safety. Sadly three horses were discovered by fire crews once the flames had been brought under control.

Station Manager Reay, said:  “The horse owners did fantastically well to rescue so many of the horses. Fire crews will remain  on scene to ensure that all the hot spots are damped down to allow a full fire investigation to take place. The fire is not being treated as suspicious.”

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following a burglary and theft from a vehicle in Thame.

Between 2pm and 8pm Thursday (26/02) offender(s) gained access to a property in Southern road, by smashing a double glazed rear door panel. An iPad Air with a red case, CANON digital camera and cash were stolen.

Between midnight and 7pm Saturday (21/02) offender(s) gained access to an insecure vehicle parked outside a property in Cotmore Gardens. An MIO  sat-nav was stolen.

If you have seen any suspicious looking people or vehicles in the area or have any information relating to this message please call the police on 101.

Alternatively if you have any information but wish to remain anonymous, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online @ crimestoppers-uk.org. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.

THAME’S top police officers have made it clear that illegal parking in the town is not a priority for them. Reporting to Thame Town Council at its meeting on Tuesday (24/02), Inspector Mark Harling and Sgt Aidan Donohoe told councillors that with a beat of 110 sq miles, and with just four Constables and seven PCSOs, their priorities had to be talking to victims of crime, child protection issues in the area, dealing with shed and garage break-ins, Road Traffic Collisions and visiting vulnerable elderly and other people with mental health issues.

“We do however, deal with parking enforcement issues when we can,” said Sgt Donohue, who said that he personally was a strong advocate of the Decriminilisation of parking, with the use of dedicated parking.

“In November we issued 30 Fixed Penalty Notices, and more recently, 12 in two days during January, and I am confident that between 20 and 30 will be given in February. But it can only be ad hoc, when we have the time and the resources,” he added.

DROP IN CRIME

Insp Harling said that, after a £40 million cut as part of austerity measures, there was ‘no hanging fruit’ and that the force was going through a  ‘quality-based’ budgeting exercise. “I have no idea what the force may look like in a year’s time,” he told councillors. Despite the challenges, he said, crime in the Thame Sector had dropped by 18% since April last year, with 851 crimes last year, to this last year’s 696. There had though, he said, been an increase in ‘Calls for Service’ – relating to such things as Missing Persons, and Child Sex Exploitation, this latter which had increased ‘exponentially’.

“So, although we have time from the reduction in crime, that time is filled up with these other areas.” he explained. Two or three people are reported missing everyday, he went on, and although most of them are found, they tend to be either very old or very young, and therefore of high risk, so every resource will be used to a specific location to find them. He went on: “On top of all this, we are picking up the slack of other public organisations. Because they do not necessarily operate 24 hours a day, we are the organisation that will be telephoned, and we have to respond even though it is not our sphere of responsibility.

“I cannot make any promises but just explain our position. In six months time, we may be able to come back to you and explain what Thames Valley Police is looking like.”

ZIG-ZAG LINES & PARKING IN RESIDENTIAL STREETS

In answer to a query from Cllr Vaughan Humphries, Sgt Donohoe explained PCSO’s cannot give tickets to drivers who park on zig-zag lines etc, only Constables. So far, he said, eight had been issued. When Cllr Mary Stiles asked about parking in residential streets around the town, she was told that the police did tend to concentrate on the town centre and that, when they did try to catch people parking illegally in residential streets, the culprits had very often gone, having only parked there for a short time.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Cllr Lambert asked about the force’s recent taking up of using social media, particular twitter, where they had published photographs of offending vehicles. He asked whether they would be actually replying to tweets in the near future or was it just a tool for saying ‘we are here; this is what we are doing’ ? Sgt Donohoe explained that he was indeed tweeting as part of a force-wide initiative of public engagement, but that the training was not to get into a back and forth discussion. He added that he does look at twitter and takes note of the postings. For rural crime particularly, he explained, such tweeting was seen as a deterrent.

Cllr Laver asked if the police were able to use the CCTV cameras to identify persistent parking offenders and was told that, although officers did not have the resources to do that, they do target persistent offenders. “We know who they are,” he added. Cllr Lambert then asked whether, if local people tweeted pictures of offenders, could the police doing anything? He was told that the best thing is for people to email such pictures to the Neighbourhood team via ThameWatlingtonChinnorNHPT@thamesvalley.pnn.police.uk

NO CHANGE ANY TIME SOON

The Town Clerk reported that Civil Parking Enforcement (that was supposed to replace the use of traffic wardens and become the responsibility of local authorities) had been put on hold, mainly because of the expense.

NB Civil Parking Enforcement was supposed to be discussed at SODC Cabinet meeting in January, which was cancelled. It does not appear to be on the agenda of February’s Cabinet meeting, and the link to the ‘cabinet report’ does not work. (Could be due to disruptions to the website after the fire at SODC HQ in January)

FOLLOWING representation from a group against a proposed superstore on the edge of Thame, Thame Town Council has voted to support an independent study of the impact of a supermarket on the viability of the town’s High Street.

Clare Nickless, speaking on behalf of the recently formed ‘Thame Centre First‘ group and Thame4Business, told a meeting of the full council last night (24/02), that the independent retailers in the town were ‘overwhelmingly against’ the proposed large supermarket on the DAF site, fearing that it would have a major impact on the vitality and viability of Thame Town Centre. Both the Thame Centre First Group and Thame4Busniness had carried out informal surveys among the independent retailers, she said, and read out some of statements that they had made in response to survey questions about how they thought an edge of town, superstore would affect their business:

“…..detrimental impact on the town and would cream off our trade”; “We would seriously look to relocate”; “I will have to close”; “Proposed site to far from town centre to keep shoppers in Thame”; “A negative impact onThame, I have seen it in Buckingham where small business suffered due to a Tesco opening”; “It will destroy the sense of community”; “An out of Town store would kill off the Co-Op and negatively effect business in the town”; “Thame would die, look at Abingdon, Princes Risborough and Gt Missenden”

“There is already uncertainty in the High Street, with some shopkeepers wondering whether they should be renewing their rental agreements,” Clare told councillors, “They need our support.”

She continued: “Can we work together to produce a Thame-lead, independent assessment; one set of data to support the Neighbourhood Plan, to support and endorse Town and District planning policy, and to use for the whole of the High Street going forward?”

Cllr Don Butler congratulated Clare Nickless on the work her organisations were doing and her presentation, adding: “Great job! Keep up the pressure!”

THE THAME NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN

Clare reminded councillors what the Neighbourhood Plan states: “A large superstore on the edge of Thame would undermine the town’s vitality and the viability of town centre shops. This would be detrimental to the overall sustainability of the town and would reduce the accessibility and choice of services and facilities available to the community.”

And the SODC Local Plan 2031 refined options – “..a town centre first approach, directing new supermarkets and other shops to town centres rather than out of town sites, is government policy and is important to help retain the vitality and viability of the town centres.”

‘TIPPING POINT’

The Town Clerk, Helen Stewart, said that the subject of carrying out such a study came from discussions with the council’s Neighbourhood Plan group, with regard, not only to Tesco, but from worries about when would be the ‘tipping point’ that another supermarket would be needed, and to look at all suitable sites. Other studies may need to be carried out, including one on parking, she added. In answer to a question about time scales from Cllr David Laver, the Clerk said that there had been pre-application discussions between Tesco and SODC, but that because of personel changes at Tesco there was some uncertainty over when and if an application would go forward. “A decision would be unlikely before the election,” she added.

It was pointed out during the discussion that followed that if it were to submit a planning application for a supermarket, Tesco would be likely to submit its own version of a Town Centre Impact Assessment to the planning authority, who would then ‘test’ it. “Tesco’s version will say what Tesco wants it to say,” said Cllr Mike Dyer. “Our’s needs to be an independent study,” added Cllr Champken Woods, so that we can make an informed decision.”

Cllr Vaughan Humphries said: “It is the integrity of our Neighbourhood Plan that is at stake here.” Cllr Helena Fickling said: “This is not just about a supermarket. We should have an idea about what retail we need and have a strategy so that we can be pro-active in supporting the town centre.”

The council voted unanimously in favour of an independent study ‘of the impact of a supermarket development’ on the town centre, to be carried out.