Category: Thame news

THE programme for May’s Chilterns Walking Festival spring event has been announced by the Chilterns Conservation Board, organiser of the popular festival.

Running from Saturday, May 18, to Sunday, June 2, 2019, the programme includes over 70 guided walks, events and activities covering the whole of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which stretches from Oxfordshire through Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire into Hertfordshire. 
 
The new programme includes specialist themed walks, and opportunities to discover lively stories and scenic landscapes associated with the Chilterns. Some walks include the prospect of sampling local food and drink, others provide ‘have-a-go’ sessions or chances to learn about the area’s wildlife, history and colourful characters.   
 
The Spring programme opening week – highlights include:

• Classic Chilterns Views – join our knowledgeable guide and follow the ancient Ridgeway, taking in the views from Coombe Hill Monument before lunching in Buckmoorend at the Farm Shop café; returning past Chequers, country home of Britain’s Prime Minister.
• Midsomer Murders Revealed! – explore Henley’s historical past and visit Midsomer Murders locations; our guide will reveal filming locations, personal anecdotes & facts you won’t find in the guide book.
• Mindful Wellbeing Nordic Walk – improve your health physically and mentally with a 2–3 mile Nordic trek through Chilterns Woodlands using walking poles; a feast for the senses discovering woodland plants and trees.
• Bluebells and Blacksmiths – this ‘Meet the Maker’ craft walk will introduce you to two workshops: Cobalt Blacksmiths and Gordon Kent Furniture Maker. The walk takes in beautiful scenery including beechwoods carpeted in bluebells (nature permitting).
• Living History: Jordan’s Village – discover the history of this Quaker-founded village, including a tour of Jordan’s Meeting House and optional tea & cakes at Spindrift B@B
   
  Each walk is guided by an experienced leader who knows the area well and is keen to share stories of the people and places that have shaped the countryside. 
   
  Chilterns Conservation Board People and Society Officer Annette Venters said: “The Chilterns Walking Festival is now a firm favourite with both tourists and residents: each year we see more walks, more guides, more local business involvement, and above all growing numbers of participants. This year the programme includes a huge variety of walks to enable everyone to explore The Chilterns and discover remarkable people and places within a beautiful natural environment. There’s already been lots of interest, so please do book early to avoid disappointment.”
   
  Details of all guided walks, events and activities available in the spring programme can be found on the website www.visitchilterns.co.uk/walkingfest. Most are free of charge though some require a small fee which is clearly shown. To assist walk leaders with expected numbers, most events must be pre-booked.

More information:
The Chilterns Walking Festival involves spring and autumn events (2017-2019), funded by a successful LEADER grant application secured by Chilterns Conservation Board.
May’s 16 day programme in 2019 features over 50 guided walks, activities and events, designed to appeal to different age groups, interests and levels of fitness. There will be walks for young families, for people with limited mobility or with canine companions.
The Chilterns AONB is a rural area, surrounded by major urban centres including Luton, Aylesbury, Hemel Hempstead, Reading and High Wycombe. London is 20 miles to the south east and there are excellent road, rail and bus transport links. In total, 10 million people live within an hour’s driver time of the Chilterns.

Chilterns AONB
The Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) was designated in 1965 and covers 833 sq kms (326 sq miles) stretching from Goring, in Oxfordshire, to near Hitchin, in Hertfordshire. It is one of 38 AONBs in England and Wales and has a resident population of 80,000.
 
Chilterns Conservation Board
The Chilterns Conservation Board was set up following the passing of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act, 2000, to conserve and enhance the natural beauty and increase awareness and understanding of the Chilterns AONB. The Board, which also aims to foster the social and economic wellbeing of local communities, is supported by Defra and all local authorities in the area.
 
LEADER Programme
The Chilterns Walking Festival is part funded by The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development through the Chilterns LEADER programme. The grant received through this programme has helped make these festivals happen. The LEADER programme assists rural businesses to create jobs and support the rural economy. It has been running across England for more than 10 years.
 
Event Main Sponsor: Complete Outdoors
The Complete Outdoors camping shop was established 35 years ago to supply outdoor gear suitable for local walks in the park to mountain expeditions, and everything in between. The store is based in Bourne End, between Hemel Hempstead and Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. Open seven days a week, there is also an online store.www.completeoutdoors.co.uk
 
Event Sponsor: Brakspear
Brakspear is a family owned and run Henley brewer and award-winning pub company which has been at the heart of British life for over 200 years. Many of the company’s 132 pubs are located in picturesque rural and town centre settings across The Chilterns. www.brakspear.co.uk

Event Sponsor: The Chiltern Society
The Chiltern Society is a registered charity with over 7,000 members and 500 active volunteers dedicated to conserving, celebrating and caring for the Chilterns. It manages 12 important nature reserves and heritage sites, in addition to carrying out conservation work across the Chilterns landscape. www.chilternsociety.org.uk

For further information, details of local walks and high resolution images, please contact Annette aweiss@chilternsaonb.org tel 01844 355500

Six worthy winners received a Town Award, and the Thame Remembers Project presented with the Mayor’s Special Award, at the eleventh Thame Town Awards on Thursday (14/03), held at the Barns Centre.

The first town award, Sporting Achievement, went to Alice Hopkins who is currently representing Great Britain in the pentathlon as well as ranking first in the UK for Under-23 long jump. Volunteer of the Year went to Jesse Smith who organises the annual Thame Tractor Run which has raised over £20,000 for charity and brings together the local farming community. Curtis Wyse, a local postman, received the Service with a Smile award for his professional, helpful and – of course – friendly service.

Windles Group received the first Employer of the Year award for their wide-ranging services to the community, in particular their support for the local schools, Town Council and businesses. Windles Group are an environmentally-focused business and place great value on the partners they work with. Yvonne Maxwell received the Creative Arts Achievement for organising the successful and evolving annual Thame Arts and Literature Festival which is now in its tenth year.

The final award of the evening went to Jean Mander, who received the Lifetime Achievement for her involvement in so many community forums, groups and activities. In particular, she has volunteered with the Thame Visually Impaired Group for over 40 years and goes above and beyond in this role doing all she can to help others.

The Thame Remembers Project’s special award was in recognition of its members’ extensive efforts to mark the centenary of World War One in Thame.

The panel, made up of representatives from various community organisations, were said to be very impressed with the nominations and to have had a tough time deciding the winners.

The Mayor congratulated all of this year’s winners and encouraged everyone to make a nominations next year. After the formalities, guests enjoyed a complimentary buffet.

Original image Peter Lambert

AFTER Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, was criticised by the headteachers’ campaigning group Worth Less? for refusing to meet headteachers and hear first-hand their struggles with funding cuts, 7,000 Headteachers all over the country, sent letters home to parents about ‘the dire state’ of education funding – including the Head of Lord Williams’s school in Thame.

‘Meangingless statistic’

David Wybron, The Head of Lord Williams’s school, has written to Damian Hinds, challenging the government’s claim that its spending on schools was ‘at record levels,’ and to Thame’s MP John Howell, asking specific questions about changes to schools’ funding:

Mr Wybron wrote to Damian Hinds:

“Last Friday, I again supported the ‘Worth Less?’ Campaign and along with thousands of other Headteachers, sent a letter to parents/carers explaining why school funding is in such a dire state. The government, as it has done on countless occasions over the last 18 months, claimed that the government spending on schools was at record levels.”

“This is a completely meaningless statistic because student numbers have risen considerably over this period as have staffing costs. The only data that really should matter is spending per individual student. I have also written to our local MP John Howell and simply asked him to answer three questions. Hopefully, he now has the answers from the House of Commons Library research team. They are:

 Will you confirm to your constituents that per pupil funding has fallen by 8% in real terms since 2010? (Institute of Fiscal Studies Annual Report September 2018)
 Will you confirm that increasing staffing costs are set to cripple schools (the government is planning to increase the employers’ contribution for teacher pensions in September 2019 from 16.48% to 23.68% and this is unfunded from 2020-21. If it remains unfunded it will add around £336,000 to our staffing costs).
 Will you agree to campaign to reverse the above decision on schools’ teacher pensions contributions?

“These matters are so important for our young people. We are currently paying for all services which were hitherto provided by the Local Authority and the money we were entitled to, to cover these costs as an academy, has now been removed completely. This is on top of considerable cuts to our Sixth Form funding because the Schools’ Budget does not include Sixth Form funding. I raise this again, because it is conveniently forgotten whilst other spurious things are said by government spokespeople, such as including the money being spent by students and their families on university tuition and counting this as part of the government’s investment in education!

“I am almost more cross about the dishonesty in all this and would appeal for the government to speak with integrity on these matters even if it is to say, ‘We are in tough times, be creative with lessresources’. To pretend this is not the real situation is and remains scandalous.

David Wybron
Headteacher
Lord Williams’s School, Thame

THIS is the letter sent out to LWS parents and carers updating them on school funding issues:

“Dear Parent/Carer

“I wanted to contact you to provide an update on current issues relating to school funding.

“Sadly, I have to confirm that despite intense lobbying of the Government and Department for Education, matters remain extremely challenging. In short, schools are still not being provided with adequate funding and resource to deliver the level of provision and support that is expected and that our families and children deserve.

Current Concerns

 Since 2010 school budgets have been reduced in real terms by 8% and by 20% at post-16.
 Class sizes are rising and the curricular offer is being restricted.
 Increasingly, schools are being asked to support with children’s emotional health and wellbeing. Frequently, we do not have adequate resource to meet a growing need.
 Often, the most vulnerable students in our schools – those from disadvantaged backgrounds or those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) – are bearing the brunt of cuts and schools are struggling to provide the levels of support that they are entitled to.

“These issues are not simply affecting a few schools. They are common features across our education system up and down the country. Levels of concern are so widespread amongst headteachers that we are all working together with a united voice. As such, we have written to the Secretary of State for Education on three separate occasions since September 2018. We are dismayed that he has chosen to ignore our communications and repeated requests to meet. On 13 December 2018, we were informed by a junior civil servant that: “I am afraid that, on this occasion, the Secretary of State and the Minister of State must decline your offer to meet. I hope you will understand that their time is heavily pressurised and their diaries need to be prioritised according to ministerial, Parliamentary and constituency business.”

“Given the seriousness of the current school funding crisis and the impact upon schools, children and families, headteacher colleagues and I, believe that this approach is entirely ill-judged. On 14 January, 2019, we wrote again to the Secretary of State for Education asking that he reconsider meeting with
representative headteachers. Six weeks later, this request was declined once more: “As I’m sure you will appreciate, both their diaries are very full and they are unable to accept your kind offer at this time.”

“Thousands of headteachers simply do not understand what issues could be seen as more important than the ones we are raising on behalf of schools, children and families.

“In September 2018, over 2000 headteachers campaigned at Westminster in order to underline the seriousness of the current situation. This action was unprecedented.

“The ‘Worth Less?’ campaign group now comprises 64 Local Authorities and Boroughs, covering thousands of schools and millions of families. This gives a clear indication of the levels of concern felt by reasonable and moderate headteachers in England.

“We continue to recognise that there is not a ‘bottomless pit’ of money and also acknowledge that many local MPs from across the political spectrum are taking a supportive approach. We must make clear, however, that the current response from the Department for Education is inadequate.

Why we need to meet:

 Headteachers want to contribute constructively to overcome current funding issues.
 Headteachers want to reflect the serious concerns expressed by families regarding inadequate levels or resource and provision especially for our most vulnerable students.
 Headteachers want to ensure that schools receive a much better deal when future Government spending plans – the Comprehensive Spending Review – are drawn up over the next few months.
 Headteachers want to indicate serious and rising concerns relating to the wider pastoral and social care that schools are expected, by default, to provide against a background of severe cuts to Local Authority provision.

“Headteacher colleagues and I feel fortunate that we have been so strongly supported by parents and carers as we campaign for a much improved level of funding for our schools and pupils. We urge you to continue to make representations to your local MP and to the Department for Education and wider Government to ensure that matters improve.

“We will continue to inform you of the facts and to campaign vigorously over coming weeks and months. A positive starting point should come from the Secretary of State for Education in the form of an urgent meeting.”

Yours sincerely
David Wybron

ROBIN Storey, of the group, Open Britain Thame, which campaigns for a ‘People’s Vote’ on any Brexit deal with the EU, has written an open letter to John Howell MP, questioning the MP’s latest blog post on Brexit. The letter reads:

“SADLY, John Howell MP couldn’t be more wrong to conclude that there’s “nothing new on Brexit” in his March 6th blog.

“BMW Mini have now publicly questioned whether they can continue to make Mini in Oxford.

“For a year, BMW Mini have warned publicly of the threat to their supply chain and now they’re moving towards a Honda Swindon style decision to relocate production elsewhere and avoid disruption and 10% tariffs on every car they make and export to Europe.

“MPs are increasingly engaging on this issue; it can’t make sense for John Howell MP to ignore local jobs, for loyalty owed only in Westminster and to Party. We now need the scrutiny of all MPs in Parliament to ensure common sense prevails.

“He should focus on these real local issues and look for another national solution, as his loyalty to his own Prime Minister has been exposed as misplaced – and this loyalty is no longer deserved.

“The root of the May catastrophe lies in the legally inconsistent demands of no hard Irish border on one hand and a deal acceptable to the integrity of the EU’s continuing single market on the other. It’s premise has been exposed as fanciful and the option no longer exists, despite three wasted months since the December vote on the deal was first pulled. A pink pantomime unicorn from his own Party attended the Conservatives’ Spring conference at the Belfry Hotel nearby. It is isn’t a question of waiting for a negotiation to play out – more a slow locally made Mini car crash.

“Unfortunately, the Withdrawal Agreement or May deal is pointless, as it cedes all voting control, but continues to follow laws from the EU. It isn’t a compromise; it’s a botched negotiating plan that wilfully failed to take advice at the outset, but chose to follow Rees-Mogg internal party politics instead; the opposite of what anyone voted for.

“It’s not Europe and its not control. It won’t work. He should now vote against.

“No deal constitutes a rupturing of legal and economic relations unprecedented for a modern nation state. It cannot be voted through with good conscience. He should vote against.

“That leaves voting to extend Article 50 and finding time for a sensible solution.

“That’s why we’ve been calling on John Howell MP to support the Peoples Vote on the terms of the final Brexit deal. On March 23rd, hundreds of thousands of People will march at the Put It to the People march, including many from Thame taking, the 0938 from Haddenham.”

Robin Storey
Open Britain Thame
https://www.peoples-vote.uk/march

UPDATE March 11, 2019 – The fire, in Rycote Lane, Thame, is now being treated as arson, following a burglary when tipper trucks were stolen.

The police want to hear from anyone who saw a number of trucks driving away from the site, or have any other information which they think could help with their appeal for witnesses. Call the Thames Valley Police non-emergency number on 101, quoting reference number 43190074016.

AT 03.40 this morning, March 10, 2019, crews from Oxfordshire County Council and Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue were called by the Ambulance Service to a fire at an industrial building in Rycote Lane, Thame

Seven fire engines from stations in Thame, Wheatley, Woodstock, Oxford and Aylesbury attended the scene along with special water carrying appliances and command units.

A large fire appears to have started in a portacabin belonging to
David Einig Contracting, used as an office spread to a two-storey industrial unit. Crews used breathing apparatus, hose lines and high-pressure fans tackled the blaze and searched the building.

Watch Manager. Andy Ford from Thame, said: “Our colleagues in the Ambulance Service alerted us to this incident as they had seen it whilst they were mobile. We’re glad they called us when they did otherwise losses would have been even greater. Buckinghamshire fire crews were quickly on scene to support us and did a fantastic job to help extinguish the fire as speedily as possible.”

Crews are still working to search the building to ensure nobody has been hurt and to extinguish any pockets of fire that remain. They are likely to be there well into the morning due to the size of the building.

A joint investigation is being carried out by the fire service and te police into the cause of the fire.

A man from Thame, along with three others, has been charged with the murder of Luciano Dos Santo who died after he was hit by a car and stabbed in Southfield Road, Oxford on Wednesday last week, March 6, 2019.

Safeen Abdullah Karimi, aged 27, of Hode Garth, Thame, was arrested along with Michael Yemane, aged 20, of South Bridge Row, Oxford, Welid Solomon, aged 25, of Field Avenue, Oxford and Sasan Mohammed Khalid, aged 19, of no fixed abode.

All four appeared at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, March 9, and were remanded in custody to appear at Oxford Crown Court today, March 11.

The victim was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital following the attack, but did not survive his injuries.

Mr Dos Santos’s family have been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers.

YOUTH groups across Oxfordshire will be invited to bid for part of a £1m fund over two years, and encouraged to find match funding from their local communities. The money is part of the recent budget agreed by Oxfordshire county Council who have said that this money would help existing projects expand and new ones get off the ground.

The funds would be administered by a cross-party working group of Oxfordshire’s county councillors, chaired by Councillor Mark Gray and bidding for the new grant fund – £500,000 in 2019/20 and the same in 2020/21 – will be opened in April.

Councillor Nigel Hudspeth said: “We want to try to reach out to all areas of the county, recognising good existing youth activities and offering additional support and offering help where there are gaps in services. I am sure local people with energy and ideas will come forward.”

Voluntary sector welcome for extra youth spending

Jodie Lloyd-Jones, chief executive of Oxfordshire Youth, said: “Community-run youth services make a huge contribution to society and compliment statutory services, but more importantly they provide a safe space, a trusting relationship and offer young people a sense of belonging.

“As young people grow up in a society that has moved online, a physical space for young people to go and build relationships, and feel connected to the wider community is more important than ever before.

“The youth clubs and organisations that are currently operating across the county provide an essential service for children and young people. As a charity at the heart of these organisations, we see the impact that is made on a daily basis.

“It is really positive that Oxfordshire County Council has found a way to support these services, the more recognition we have of the value of voluntary sector youth services, the more investment we will be able to bring to the county.”