Category: Thame news

A WELL-KNOWN Chinnor and Thame Friend of the Earth, who has devoted 16 years of her life to voluntary child pedestrian training is to be thanked by Oxfordshire County Council for her work.
Maureen Dyroff has helped hundreds of youngsters at the Jack and Jill Pre-school in Chinnor since the early 1990s. She has been the driving force of the project at the Chinnor pre-school since the Footsteps child pedestrian training scheme was set up county-wide.
Maureen and her team of staff and volunteer parents, are among the 1,300 volunteers being thanked by the county council’s road safety team for their commitment to teaching vital life saving skills to children as part of Footsteps.

Local county councillor, David Wilmshurst, will be presenting Maureen with a bouquet of flowers on Thursday, June 7, as a token of thanks. Children at the pre-school will be drawing pictures of their experiences and these will be displayed for parents to view.

Maureen said: “I have seen the Footsteps programme develop over the years and I have observed how the practical training has affected the behaviour of the children and, equally importantly, the parents. If we save just one child all the years will have been worth it.”

Sarah Gniadek Pitt, Oxfordshire County Council’s Road Safety Officer, added: “Maureen is one of the army of 600 plus volunteers who help children develop these decision making, life saving skills to keep them safe now and in the future.
“The support of the volunteers is very much appreciated and on behalf of the county council I thank them.”

Photo: Maureen Dyroff at a recent Green Fayre, wearing one of her many, volunteer ‘hats’

THAME town councillors have agreed to the use of the town hall for a young people’s event to celebrate the end of examinations.
In a presentation to members of the town council’s Policy and Resources committee on Tuesday, by one the 21st Century Thame’s Youth Councillors, town councillors were assured that the event would be well marshalled by volunteers and some paid security operatives to ensure that no alcohol was taken into the building.

The event is intended to keep up the momentum gained by the popular youth nights at The Social in North Street, which ceased when the business closed down. It is aimed at young people from 13 to 18 years-old, will include DJs as well as bands and run from 7.30pm to 10pm.

Cllr David Laver said: “I know that previus events like, this that we have held in the open air, have caused doubts and consternation but they were fine. We should certainly be encouraging greater use of the town hall.”
Cllr David Bretherton said that he was of the opinion that the town council should support this venture whole-heartedly and in charging for the hire of the town hall, it should be considered as a charitable event.
Cllr Donald Butler suggested that this event should be looked upon as a test for such events.

THAME councillors have agreed to form a working party to bring together all the organisations interested in advancing a new library for Thame.
The suggestion came from Councillor Beatrice Dobie, a founder member of the Friends of Thame Library, who suggested that there is a need to keep the new library in the forefront of the public’s mind. “It is,” she said, “the responsibility of the town council to ensure that the town’s views are heard about the formation of a new library, and for instance to ask the schools what they want from a new library.”

No plan has yet been drawn up for a new library, which the county council have said will be built some time next year on the site of the current Pied Pedaller toy shop, in North Street, Thame.
The store was given an extension to January 2008, after its owners had originally asked to terminate the lease last February.

The site is not, however, a popular choice of site for everyone in the town, with some, including CMAG, the Cattlemarket Action Group, preferring to suspend the decision to build in North Street, until the future of the Cattlemarket site is decided, believing that a library could form part of a larger community facility on the cattlemarket site.

Photo: The Pied Pedaller toy shop in North Street, Thame, which is planned to be demolished and replaced with a new library.

PLANS for a 50 bed hotel and extension to a Thame Golf Club, have met with approval by Thame Town Council.
This new application replaces an original design described by a town councillor as: “Not looking out of place in Marbella.”
This latest application met with town councillors’ support, Cllr Richard Walker saying: “We need facilities like these in the area to help maintain its economic health.”
The Oxfordshire Golf Club, which is owned by Leaderboard Golf Ltd, withdraw the new plan whilst it prepared a Tourism report to support the application.

The Oxfordshire’s Manager, Martin Harris, told ThameNews.Net: “As well as being good for the area’s economy by bringing extra business, the extra bedrooms will mean that we can make extra use of the conference facilities here if we can offer residential conference facilities. Also, we do a lot of wedding receptions here and, again it would be useful to be able to offer hotel accommodation.
“Thirdly, if we are to attract major tournements here again, we need to be on a par with the venues usually chosen over us, who typically have accommodation for officials and players.”

IN the recent report (May 22) about the ‘Places’ exhibition at Buckinghamshire Museum, Aylesbury, the closing date was erroneously stated as June 3. The musuem no longer opens on Sundays so the exhibition will end on June 2.

ONE of the wettest weekends on record failed to dampen the spirits of the Thame and District Twinning Association who welcomed guests from our twin town, Montesson, for a visit that included a triumphant, joint concert that packed St Mary?s church on Saturday evening.
Despite a few discrepancies in the practiced tempo of Pucchini?s Messa Di Gloria that emerged during the rehearsal, the actual performance by Thame Choral Society and the Intermezzo Choral of Montesson, was almost faultless and much appreciated by an audience that included the new Mayor of Thame, Cllr David Bretherton and his wife, Margaret.
As Madame Huguette Fouch

TWO twin sisters from Worminghall, near Thame, had the great honour yesterday of meeting the Emperor and Empress of Japan.
Judith and Laura Merry, who are both students at Lord Williams?s school, Thame, were presented to the Imperial couple, when the royal pair paid a visit to Helen and Douglas Houses in East Oxford, as part of a three day tour of the UK.
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko were welcomed by the hospice?s founder, Sister Frances Dominica, the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, Hugo Brunner and members of the care staff who look after young people with life-shortening conditions.
Both Laura and her sister Judith have Genetic Muscular Dystrophy but despite their disability, these delightful girls lead very full lives, including designing and developing their own range of stylish clothes for girls who, like them use wheelchairs to get around.
Their foray into the world of fashion however, is currently on hold as they are revising hard for their A Level exams which begin next week.
The girls had met the Empress before when they visited Japan with the Momiji charity, which is run by Mrs Kidani who went to school with the Empress, and her husband. The girls told Thamenews.Net: ?It was amazing. The Emperor and Empress were so lovely and charming and asked us if we had enjoyed our trip to Tokyo and Kyoto ? they both spoke very good English.?

Both the Merry twins are aiming to go to university after A levels, Laura to Roehampton University, Kingston-Upon-Thames, to study English Literature, and Judith to Keel to study American Studies and International Relations.

THE first three years of the Festival have seen us raise ever increasing sums for local charities, and last year we were able to donate

A NEW outline planning application has been submitted to South Oxfordshire District Council for the relocation of Thame Cattle Market and associated buildings, car parking, new access and ancillary activities to Thame Show ground.
The planning application will be considered at an additional Planning Meeting on June 5, by Thame Town Council.
A previous plan, submitted by Developer Bob Williams, was withdrawn after Thame Town Council recommended its rejection, over fears that if the cattle market moved to Thame Show Ground, residents of Lea Park would experience increased difficulty in driving out onto the by-pass.

THAME market traders are planning a community fun day for some time during the summer holidays, and as well as bunting, balloons and street entertainers, the traders themselves will be entering a ‘Loudest Voice’ competition in an attempt to break the highest level recorded in the Guiness Book of Records.
There is however, a serious side to the competition – a Speach Therapist will be on hand to give advice to traders and to the public about how to look after their vocal chords.
Local charities will be invited to join the market by setting up their own stalls to raise funds.