THIS year’s Global Car Free Day, a now annual event held in towns and cities all over the world, is to be supported by Thame Town Council, with a Community Pedaling Picnic to be held at Southern Road Recreation ground.
The event is being organised by Cllr Sonja Francis who explained: “The idea is that we hold a decorated bicycle ride for all ages from Montesson Square, through the town, to the Southern Road Rec. culminating there in a parade of the bikes and the Mayor of Thame, Ann Midwinter, judging the best decorated entry. This will be followed by a picnic with everyone bringing their own food and drink (no alcohol please as we want this to be a family event). Those taking part will be very welcome to bring along cricket bats, tennis rackets, rounders balls etc if they wanted to play games.
“Everyone else – excluding those who are disabled, who will be permitted to park their vehicles in the Southern Road car park – can walk, skate board or roller skate because the idea of course, is to leave the car at home!”
To ensure that there is enough support for the idea, please register your interest, including the number of bikes in your group or family, by emailing: Sonja.Francis@thametowncouncil.gov.uk
So, what is Global Car Free Day?
World Car Free Day is an event that is held on 22nd of September each year in towns and cities all over the world. The aim is to encourage people to spend a day without driving their cars for the sake of the environment. As we all know, cars produce compounds that harm our environment and so, we can make a contribution to reducing their impact if we all spend even just one day without using our cars. Various events are organized in different countries in light of the celebration of this event.
TUESDAY, August 20, 2019, will see the official launch of a new Ultrasound service at the Day hospital, at Thame Community Hospital.
Image courtesy of: AECC University College
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Thame Hospital league of friends will be hosting the grand opening of this service to an invited group of guests, before opening the service to the public.
The service, which will be run by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, has been created with the support of the League of Friends of Thame Community Hospital and will offer diagnostic services closer to home, ensuring that the local community will have access to the same standard of ultrasound provision available at larger hospitals.
A Spokesperson for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust said: “Patients who live in Thame or are local to Thame will benefit from having their Ultrasound services within the heart of the community. We are very grateful for the League of Friends’ generous donation and support for making this possible.”
Each year, the Trust carries out over 90,000 ultrasound examinations, a procedure that uses high frequency sound waves to create an image of part of the inside of the body, such as the heart, and babies growing in the womb.
A climate activist from Thame was in a group of seven people from across the UK who pleaded not guilty before City of London Magistrates court on Friday, to a charge of obstructing the highway, during a week of Climate change protests in April, that brought traffic in central London to a halt.
Police carrying away protestors from around the iconic XR Pink boat Boat, in Oxford Circus, London
John Francis, 70, a retired Chairmaker, along with his fellow defendants, took part in the peaceful, mass protest organised by Extinction Rebellion, that centred around a pink boat, positioned in the middle of Oxford Circus. It was while sitting on the ground under the pink boat, that Mr Francis was arrested.
During the six day protest, around 1,000 people were arrested.
The trial of this group of seven will take place on November 19, 2019.
THE Thame-Sinaia Friendship Association will be welcoming four residents from Sinaia, Thame’s twin town in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, who will be representing their town at TAL Festival between October 17-21, 2019.
Sinaia’s representatives at TAL 2019 pictured in front of Sinaia’s International Conference Centre, 20th Century former casino building (Photo: courtesy of Felicia Mirza)
The Association is appealing to Thame’s residents who have a spare room and are able to host one of the guests to come forward. Marius Ciortan, secretary of the Thame-Sinaia twinning group, said: “This will be a great opportunity to meet people from our twin town and find out about their lives and literary hobbies.
“Most of our Thamensians who hosted Sinaians in the past, have been invited to visit Sinaia and they thoroughly enjoyed their stay there. They have been made to feel so welcome! So much – that they returned to Sinaia to see their Romanian friends a few times after their first trip there.”
The group of Sinaians will be giving a talk about the former Queen Marie of Romania, grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. Queen Marie was a great art collector, writer of important memoirs, as well as of poems and stories for children. The talk will take place at Thame Town Hall on Sunday, October 20. Tickets are free and places can be booked via TAL’s website: https://talfestival.org/
All four Sinaia guests are members of ASPE, the socio-cultural association which supports the twinning between Thame and Sinaia and is one of the main liaisons in Sinaia of Thame-Sinaia Friendship Association. Octavia Ghiocel-Floricica, is a Romanian language and literature teacher, Chinese culture expert, and contributor to Sinaia Excelsior newspaper.
Felicia Mirza, an English language and literature teacher, ASPE vice-president, contributor to Sinaia Excelsior newspaper, will be representing Sinaia for the second time at TAL, following her participation in 2017 with ‘Sinaia – Land of the Elites’ event lead by Dan Manea, local architect. Cecilia Francu, is one of ASPE vice-presidents, member of the theatre, literary club and choir of ASPE.
Finally, Marius Bratosin, ASPE President, founding member of Sinaia Photo Club, editor of the Excelsior newspaper, will be looking also to forge links with Thame’s Camera Club.
Anyone interested to be a host should get in touch with Marius via telephone: 01844 353 606 or via the Association’s FB page: www.facebook.com/thamesinaia
AN inquest at Oxford Coroner’s Court on Wednesday heard how 21 year-old Ben Folley from Chinnor, lost his life when the Black Mini Cooper he was driving, veered onto the wrong side of the road on a bend on the B4445 Chinnor Road, and collided with an on-coming car. A woman travelling in the back of the other car with her grandson, also died.
Ben Folley
Brian Evans, the husband of the deceased woman, Deputy Headteacher, Jill Evans from Malvern, described how, from the front seat of their VW Golf where he was a passenger, he became aware of a small car coming towards their vehicle, on the wrong side of the road about 50 yards away, just before impact.
A black box in the Mini recorded Ben driving at a safe 58mph, and the other car was thought to be travelling at a similar speed. Statements from forensic vehicle examiners detailed to the court that the VW had no defects but that in examining the Mini Cooper, investigators found the rear nearside tyre was underinflated prior to the crash.
Forensic collision investigator James Henderson said further examination found that the tyre was “severely under inflated” at the time of the crash, and was likely to have been driven in that condition for “a significant distance”.
Ben’s father, Martyn said in court that his wife, an experienced driver, had driven the car in the days before the crash and had not noticed any issues with the tyre pressure.
An internal indicator designed to make drivers aware of potential flat tyres had not been lit. Mr Folley said that had his son seen such an alert he would have dealt with it immediately or asked a member of his family to do so.
When Ben Folley, who was found to have no alcohol or drugs in his system, went to navigate the bend this would likely have led him to lose control, investigators said.
The cause of death for both crash victims was multiple injuries caused by a road traffic collision.
Reading aloud in the court, Ben’s mother Sarah said the family were ‘totally devastated’ and said her son “wasn’t a speeder, drinker or risk taker. He was a calm gentle boy,” she said.
“He was a bookworm, a quiet lad, he wasn’t a drinker, he loved his family. He was very sensible, and was a worrier. If he thought anything was wrong [with the car] he would have asked for help.”
THAMES Valley Police is releasing CCTV images of three men who may have vital information in connection with multiple burglaries, including two in Thame.
At around 1.30pm on Monday (29/7) offenders have knocked on the door of a property in Southern Road, Thame. to discuss guttering with the home owner. They have subsequently entered the property and conducted a search. It is unclear if anything was stolen.
At around 5pm on Tuesday (30/7) three offenders forced entry into the rear of a property on Wellington Street, Thame. Once inside the property a search has taken place. It is unclear if anything was stolen.
Between 1.45pm and 4.45pm on Monday (29/7) offenders have forced entry via the rear patio doors at a property on Fernhill Close, Tiddington. An amount of cash and personal belongings were stolen.
Investigating officer Detective Constable Chris Gibson based at Abingdon police station, said: “I am appealing to anyone who recognises these men to come forward as I believe they may have vital information about these offences.”
You can contact Thames Valley Police with any information about these offences by calling 101 quoting reference number 43190233770.
Alternatively, you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously via their website or on 0800 555 111.
A Bledlow Household Recycling Centre (HRC) Action Group has been set up led by County Councillors Bill Bendyshe-Brown and Carl Etholen with the aim of reopening the HRC as a commercial enterprise which was closed by Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) on March 31, 2019, despite huge opposition from local residents.
Responding to this enormous opposition within their local communities, leaders from 10 local Town and Parish Councils, including Thame, have also joined the Action Group.
The HRC was used by 95,000 members of the public every year from across the region including some 30% of the users coming from Oxfordshire. These users now have to travel to either High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Aston Clinton, Oxford or Watlington resulting in an estimated additional 4,100 tons of CO2 and 3100 kilos of NOx + PMs being emitted into the atmosphere based on a normal small sized car.
The Action Group has set up a Community Interest Company (CIC) and a Just Giving account and are asking members of the public to subscribe to their fund to enable a planning application to be made to BCC to enable the HRC’s reopening. Bill Bendyshe-Brown said: “The petition raised to object to the closure received nearly 4,500 signatures and we are hoping that members of the public will respond in large numbers to support our funding drive. We require a minimum of £10,000 for the planning application but significantly more to restore the site to enable it to be used again.”
Thame’s Mayor, Ann Midwinter, said: “We believe passionately that this is a worthwhile cause and our Council has contributed £500 towards the planning application. Our residents and others around our local area used Bledlow HRC regularly and they feel strongly that they want it to reopen.” The Mayor of Princes Risborough Town Council, Matt Walsh, also added his support: “With nearly 2,500 homes to be built in Princes Risborough over the coming years, let alone the big developments in Chinnor, Longwick and over 1,000 homes to be built on Haddenham airfield, reopening the Bledlow HRC is essential to meet this increased local demand. We fully support this funding drive and initiative.”
The Just Giving Page by the Action Group is now open for donations. It was officially launched on Thursday, July 25, outside the closed gates of the Bledlow HRC.
BUT first, Congratulations after the Thame Town Cricket Club’s Women’s Softball Festival proves to be a great success!
THE Women’s Softball Festival finally took place at Thame Cricket Club on Sunday, July 28. This was a huge success, after the disappointment of having to cancel the original date nine days previously. Six teams took part, which was a very good turnout at short notice. There was an entourage of supporters for all teams from family and friends, which added to the fun.
The games were played in competitive spirit and with good humour. “We had positive feedback from all teams, many commenting on the great atmosphere and how much fun they had,” reported a spokesperson for the Thame contingent. Women and girls of all ages played and whether experienced or not, the teams played with carefree enthusiasm!
Thanks were extended to all who helped to make this day a great success, from setting up pitches, umpiring and scoring, running the BBQ and the music. The play-off was between Thame and the Kites netball team – with Thame proving the winners overall!
A special ‘thanks’ went to The Bay of Bengal Restaurant and Holland Green Architects for their donations, which enabled TTCC to provide prizes for various awards for the winning team – best catch, highest score and best bowler!
And now for the Men !
THAME Town Cricket Club’s First team went top of Home Counties Premier Two over the weekend (July 27-28), with a penultimate ball victory over Wokingham.
After winning the toss and choosing to field, Thame’s bowling attack produced an extremely disciplined display to control the flow of runs. Aided by some excellent catching, Wokingham were restricted to 176-7 – Hassam Mushtaq and Andy Russell taking two wickets each.
Mike Beard
The Thame response got off to the perfect start, with openers Mike Beard (67, pictured above) and Ollie Burland (45) putting on 99 for the first wicket. A brisk 29 from Callum Russell moved Thame closer to the target, but the fall of three quick wickets saw Chris Jeffcock needing three from the final six balls. After two dot balls, a fine strike over mid off brought the scores level, and Jeffcock sealed the victory with a tickle off the pads with a ball to spare.
Rain elsewhere in the league saw Thame climb to top of the league. The Firsts go to Oxford Downs next week.
Seconds gain points in rain affected draw
THAME’S second XI hosted Great Brickhill Seconds, and after a late start and winning the toss in this rain affected match, the Seconds decided to field first and knew what to chase to secure the most points. Thame fielded very well and stuck to their plan of restricting Great Brickhill’s runs, bowling them out for 146 in their allotted 42 overs. Liam Evans (pictured below) with 5-34 off 12 overs led the way, ably backed up by Gareth Bridges with 3-47 and Dan Patey (2-41).
Liam Evans
Thame were 38-2 before the rain struck again, reducing the chase to a maximum of 23 overs but the Seconds resumed to score 94-6, well ahead of their target of 82, to secure the seven ‘winning draw’ bonus points in addition to their seven bowling points.
The Seconds host Stokenchurch next week.
Superb Thirds bowling keeps them top!
THE Thame Thirds hosted Stokenchurch at home. Having won the toss, Thame inserted Stokenchurch Seconds into bat on a slightly damp, green wicket. With an excellent opening spell from Luke Hayes (3-4, pictured below recently receiving his Award for U15s batting) and Robbie Jackson (2-16), supported once again by tight fielding, Stokenchurch struggled to get any momentum.
Luke Hayes receiving his award
The first bowling change, Fahad Majeed, continued the pressure with a spell of seven overs for only eight runs, being unlucky not to take a wicket. Ian McStay (3-20) and Rob Johnson (2-12), finished the job off, as Stokenchurch were skittled out for 86.
After an excellent Jinman tea, for the second innings, the wicket had dried out somewhat. However, with clouds and rain still threatening, Thame were keen to finish the job off. Despite the loss of two wickets, Thame eased home for an eight wicket win inside 21 overs with Nick Fuller (15*) and Guy Holmes (38*) beating the rain and securing 25 points.
Thame Thirds next play second from bottom, Long Marston, away.
Frustrating draw for the Fourths
THAME Fourths took to the road in week 12 to take on Kingston Bagpuize Seconds. Having lost the toss Thame were put into bat. Here they made a strong start with Mark Fellowes and Tim Dabbs putting on an impressive 100 run opening partnership. Dabbs falling on 30 was replaced by Charlie Anderson (48) to continue to support Fellowes who posted 84. Thame eventually finished on an impressive 205-3 off their 45 overs.
Kingston Bagpuize, in reply, set to bat out the draw from ball one in a rain affected innings. Incredible efforts and figures from Thame’s bowlers ripped into the hosts including a superb five-for-five from Trevor Spindler off his 11 overs. Three more wickets from Pete Tervet, Neil Smith and Rob Kenny heaped on the pressure but Bagpuise held on to get a draw on just 39-8 off 33 overs. Another winning draw for the Fourths bagging 18 points.
A revised road closure notice (back in April it was stated dates would be July 23-26, 2019, for Croft Road, Thame. The revised dates are now August 30 – September 1, 2019.
SOUTH OXFORDSHIRE’S Soha Housing, which has 6,700 homes across Oxfordshire and surrounding area including Thame, is one of the top housing associations in the country for growth.
Photos for Soha (South Oxford Housing Association) at their HQ in Didcot, Oxfordshire. Date: 27.03.2013. Photos by Anna Lythgoe 07801819711
Working with developers, local authority partners, and residents, Soha built 229 new homes in 2018/19 – the majority for affordable rent and a quarter of these for shared ownership (part rent, part buy).
Inside Housing, the housing sector’s trade magazine, recently published its annual league tables on new building for the affordable housing market across the UK. Achieving a 3.4% growth puts Soha in the top three housing associations for the number of homes developed relative to stock size.
Soha’s vision is to provide homes across the range of housing needs in places where people want to live and work. Steve Lynch, Director of Property and Development, said: “We’re forecasting around 260 new homes across both rented and shared ownership by the end of this financial year. This exceeds our annual target of 250”.
Soha aims to minimise the environmental impact of the new homes it builds through energy-efficient construction. It also invests in resident engagement and community activities to help residents settle in quickly.
FACT BOX:
Soha Housing, founded in July 1997, is a provider regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing. The majority of our homes are for social rent, with nearly 14% shared ownership or leasehold properties. Our stock is located across South Oxfordshire and neighbouring districts.
Soha is a community-based mutual housing association, meaning its residents can apply to become shareholding members and influence the priorities and direction of the company.
