Category: Thame news

A less-than full house, compared to previous years, gathered at Thame’s anual Town Meeting on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, to ask questions of a panel of town, district and a county councillor, chaired by the Mayor of Thame, Ann Midwinter, subjects including the Cattle Market, supermarkets, parking, a dangerous junction and climate change.

In the open forum, resident, Colin Bignall, asked if the people of Thame would be able to have a say about what is provided on the current Cattle Market site, once it moves to its new site. The Town Clerk, Graham Hunt, replied that the town council wanted to make sure that the site was used ‘sensibly’ for Thame, and that the aspiration was for ‘mixed use’ including for community use.

“We are constantly asking SODC (Ed. who own the site) what their plans are, and us giving our views. The latest is the Head of Properties at SODC telling us that they are waiting for solid news about the Cattle Market’s move before talking to us.”

Cllr Nigel Champken Woods said that the Catttle Market was the only long-term parking space in Thame, and that the council would be doing all it could not to lose it.

County Cllr Nick Carter said that SODC had a legal obligation to make the most economic use of the site and would decide what would bring in ‘the most revenue’ for the community. The Mayor of Thame, Ann Midwinter, added: “I am sure the public’s opinion will be sought.”

Helena Richards, long-term member of Cmag (Cattle Market Action Group) said that, reading the district council’s Local Plan: “There is no mention of the Cattle Market site!” The Clerk assured her that he would pass her concerns on. The Mayor thanked Mrs Richards for what she and Cmag do for the town.

Cllr Bob Austin added: “The Cattle Market lease runs out in 2021. One hopes that the relevant officers (at SODC) talk to us because time is running out to get sensible in-put into it.”

Supermarket

Resident Paul Bradley raised the issue of a Supermarket on the Cattle Market site. The Clerk said that there was some idea of what should happen on the site, following a retail analysis from Carter Jonas four years ago (see LINK) which identified a ‘deep discounter’ as the least-worst option for the site, and a Tesco or Sainsbury’s as the worse. A mix of community use, retail and parking was the best option, the analysis had concluded.

Parking

County Cllr Nick Carter responded to a question about illegal parking in the town, describing it as ‘a plague’ for everyone. Currently illegal parking was a matter for the police, he explained, but that they had ‘other priorities. For the future he said, conversations were taking place about taking the responsibility away from the police which would need a legal procedure to take offences away from being criminal to a civil offence, thereby devolving responsibility to SODC. ‘Decriminalising’ parking would require discussions with Thame Town Council, he added.

The Clerk explained that the main options would be; to install parking machines to control the two-hour parking areas; to Decriminalise all parking in the town, which would mean Thame Town Council needing to have its own parking policy; if SODC took over parking, they would see it as a revenue stream; an increase in the Police part of the Precept so that they could deal with illegal parking. None of these options, suggested the Clerk, were likely to happen within two years.

Cllr Nigel Champken Woods said that Decriminalisation was within the RADA of SODC, and that there is money set aside to look at them taking over parking.

Pavements

A new, Oxford Road resident described pavements on the south side of the High Street as ‘disgraceful’ and ‘really atrocious’. Cllr Nick Carter replied that, now that the matter had been brought to his attention, he would ask the Highways Department to look at it.

The Mayor then read out questions that had been sent in to the council from residents who were unable to attend the Town Meeting in person. The first raised the problem of the flooding of the turning circle at Lord Williams’s Upper School, which has been a problem, the correspondent said, for 35 years.

Cllr Carter said that it was the responsibility of the school itself to take the initiative and level the land.

‘Dangerous’ junction

A member of the audience asked if it would be possible to build a round-about at the junction of Thame Park Road and Wenman Road, which they suggested was dangerous because it was difficult to see traffic approaching from the left, from Thame Park Road if one was wanting to turn right into town. Cllr Carter explained that the junction had been altered four or five years-ago deliberately to discourage traffic going through the town centre from Thame Park Road. “It has fulfilled its purpose,” he said, and that in his view, the junction worked fine. He did however, agree to get Highways to look at it.

Burial space

In response to a question about the fence between the new section of burial ground at St Mary’s Church that was part of the old allotments, the Clerk said that a hedge had been planted and that the new area had provided 15 more years of burial space. Although the town council has no legal resonsibility to provide burial space, he said, the council was looking elsewhere for additional burial space for the future, in the Thame Neighbourhood Plan.

Climate Crisis

The final question from the floor was whether the town council intended to follow the example of many local authorities, including Oxford City Council, who have declared a ‘Climate Emergency‘. The panel explained that the Green Living Plan would continue to develop its policies and that the council had taken several steps towards being more sustainable, including carrying out an ‘energy audit’ of the town hall and had gone ‘paperless’ regarding minutes and reports distributed to councillors before meetings, where tablets were used to access digital papers.

The questioner said that she hoped the council would look further at aspects of its own functioning, including its energy suppliers and where it invests the community’s funds.

Soha Housing, the 6,700 home social landlord with over 450 homes in the Thame area, has received an emphatic “thumbs up” from the Regulator of Social Housing.

Assessors visited the company in January and February to scrutinise it at a planned, In-Depth Assessment. This is a check which typically takes place with about six weeks’ notice every three or four years.

The Regulatory Judgement, as the Government’s official view of a social housing provider is known, meant retention of Soha’s status as a G1 (the best Governance rating) and V1 (the best rating for financial viability) housing association.

Kate Wareing, Chief Executive of Soha, said: “Soha is proud to be local and community-owned. We are owned by our residents, are a charity, and we reinvest all our surpluses in building new homes in our communities.

“This judgement provides reassurance to our residents and partners that we are well run and financially secure. It gives us the foundations to continue to improve services for our current residents and to continue to build good quality, affordable new homes for the huge numbers of people in our communities who are struggling with the cost of housing.

“I thank our residents, staff and partners for the hard work, energy and commitment that they put in every day to make Soha an excellent community housing association.”

MEMBERS of the steering group of the Thame Remembers Project, a community commemorating the centenary of the First World War, has made a generous donation of £750 to Thame Players Theatre Company.

The donation, made on Wednesday, March 13, at the theatre, was made in recognition of the enthusiastic support and assistance given by Thame Players to the Thame Remembers project during its four-year campaign. The objective of the campaign was to commemorate the centenary of the First World War by researching all the names on Thame war memorials, identifying the location of their grave or memorial and placing a Thame Remembers cross on each resting place wherever in the world that may be. The people of Thame rose magnificently to this challenge and the lives of 212 men lost in warfare from the Boer War to the present were commemorated during the four years 2014-18, leading up to the centenary of the Armistice in November 2018.

The Players Theatre was involved in this campaign during two of those years, by working with Thame Remembers to stage two innovative theatre productions commemorating aspects of the First World War. The first production was performed on 1st July 2016, commemorating the first day of the Battle of the Somme. The second, entitled Ten Tommies from Thame, was performed on 9th and 10th November 2018 to sell-out audiences on both evenings. Ten Tommies from Thame was written by Thame Remembers steering group members Mike Dyer and Catherine Jones and performed partly by seasoned actors from Thame Players Theatre Company and partly by amateurs who had never been on stage before. The production was made possible by Thame Players letting out the theatre without a hire fee and by providing stage management, lighting, back projection, sound, and front of house functions, all on an entirely voluntary basis.

On presenting a cheque donation of £750 to Pat Shepherd, chairman of Thame Players, Thame Remembers steering group leader David Bretherton said, ‘Thame Players have been extremely generous with their time and their resources, both for the Somme production in 2016 and for Ten Tommies from Thame in November last year. We could not have achieved what we did without their invaluable help and support. Both shows were a fantastic success and will linger on in people’s minds for many years to come. They enabled us to put across a powerful visual representation of the horrors of this conflict and the part that people from Thame played in it’.

Thame Remembers has just been presented with the Mayor of Thame’s Special Award at the eleventh Thame Town Awards, held on March 14. The award was in recognition of its members’ extensive efforts to mark the centenary of the First World War in Thame. Although the key objectives of the Thame Remembers campaign have been achieved, their educational talks continue to be in demand and research – into those who went to war and returned – continues, involving future generations who can continue their pioneering work.

NOTES:

Thame Remembers is a partnership project with Thame Museum also supported by Thame Town Council. The project has been unique in its global scope and scale, with volunteers travelling 150,000 miles to place crosses, covering four continents, 23 countries, 102 cemeteries and 31 battlefield memorials. Around 1000 people were involved in these missions, including expeditions to locations as far apart as Portsmouth and New Zealand.

Thirty new names identified through Thame Remembers’ research will be added to Thame’s War Memorial at a future date, hopefully in July 2021, the centenary of its unveiling by the then Prime Minister David Lloyd George. For more information about the project’s continuing work, visit https://www.thameremembers.org/

Thame Players Theatre Company is a registered charity, run entirely by volunteers, offering a varied range of entertainment all year round, from serious theatre to comedy and pantomime, including their own productions, visiting shows, and film screenings by Thame Cinema For All.

In July Thame Players celebrate their 75th anniversary with a revue entitled Landmarks, produced by Tony Long and Bernadette Tildesley. Thame Players started with a performance in July 1944 in the Town Hall to help the war effort to become the vibrant, busy theatre we know today. Landmarks is filled with sketches, songs, and fascinating facts from those 75 years and will be performed at 7.45 pm on Friday 26th and Sunday 28th July.

For more information about Thame Players, upcoming shows, and how to join as a member or a friend, call 07881 688895 or visit www.thameplayers.co.uk

THAME Town Council’s Grants Scheme is now open to local organisations in the Thame area. The scheme aims to ‘fund projects that address the needs, aspirations and issues of the people in our community’.

The Town Council is inviting local charitable organisations who are working for the benefit of Thame to apply for funding to support projects that aim to develop skills, improve health, revitalise the local environment and enable people to become more active citizens.

Who can apply?

Any group can apply for a Town Council grant as long as it is a community or not-for-profit group working for the benefit of the people of Thame. Other terms and conditions apply; visit www.thametowncouncil.gov.uk/grant-aid for further details.

How to apply

Application packs are available from the Town Hall or you can download a pack from the Town Council’s website using the above link (scroll down for PDF Download)

The deadline for applications is 5pm on Tuesday, April 20, 2019. Applicants will be informed of the outcome of their grant application by the end of June 2019. For further information or for assistance in completing your form please contact the Town Council on 01844 212833 or email info@thametowncouncil.gov.uk.

AS well as supporting artisan producers and promoting British food, as a not-for-profit organisation, Thame Food Festival supports locals charities. This year the festival will be supporting the Thame Foodbank which was set up by Sharing Life Trust.

Lotte Duncan, Patron and Organiser of Thame Food Festival explained: “Although in many ways, Thame and its surrounding villages are seen as an affluent community, many individuals, couples and families are in financial difficulties or really struggle. This is why the foodbank was originally established and run by a small team of volunteers.

“Sadly demand for their services is increasing and therefore the organisers of the Thame Food Festival is keen to use the event to promote and support this good cause. This will involve a drop off and display area, plus the opportunity for stallholders at the end of the second day to donate any produce they don’t want to take away with them.”

This year’s Thame Food Festival will once again be on Thame Show Ground over the two days of September 28, and 29. For full details of this year’s events, including live music, canine frolics from the Hearing Dogs for Deaf People demonstrations, the ever popular Dog Show, Thomley in Worminghall with an even bigger dedicated Children’s Activity Area and Aylesbury Vale Diabetes, who provide practical, life-enhancing education and information and support. For more information and to sign up for a regular newsletter, visit the Thame Food Festival website http://www.thamefoodfestival.co.uk/