Category: Thame news

THAME residents have another opportunity to have their archaeological curios professionally assessed at the town’s new museum.
The third in a series of Portable Antiquities surgeries is to be held at the Thame Museum on Saturday, March 10, from 10am till 1pm.
It will be an opportunity for anyone with anything archaeological, or they think is archaeological, to have it assessed by an expert free of charge with no obligation to donate the objects to the museum.

The museum is also interested in hearing from local metal detectorists who might be interested in setting up a local club based at the museum.

Anyone interested should contact museum@Thamehistory.net.

A DRIVER caught on camera driving while using a hand-held mobile phone and who denied the offence, has been sentenced to 28 days imprisonment and disqualified from driving for six months.
Andrew Jonathan Millward, 40, of North Littleton in Evesham, was driving a van at 36 mph in a 30 mph speed limit last along the A418 in Tiddington, was caught on a mobile speed camera using his mobile phone.
A Notice of Intended Prosecution was sent to the driver and Andrew Millward returned the form nominating his wife as the driver. Documents were sent to Lisa Gay Millward and she admitted the offence.
Andrew and Lisa Millward were arrested on in February on suspicion of Perjury and appeared at Banbury Magistrates? Court on Monday (26/02).
Andrew Millward was found guilty of perjury and driving in excess of the speed limit and using his hand-held mobile phone at the time, and was sentenced to 28 days imprisonment and disqualified from driving for six months.
Lisa Millward was sentenced to 28 days imprisonment, suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 80 hours unpaid work in the community.

THE Police are warning residents across Oxfordshire to be on their guard after a spate of distraction burglaries yesterday throughout Monday (26/2).
Incidents happened in Chinnor, Islip, Cowley, Wallingford, Benson and Chazey Heath. There were also incidents in Reading, Bracknell, Langley and Windsor which police believe could be linked.

At midday a man came to the door of an elderly woman on Glimbers Grove, in Chinnor. He told the 84-year-old woman that he was from the Water Board. He was allowed into the kitchen and turned on the taps. He asked for some change and after he left the woman discovered a substantial amount of cash was missing. The man is white, 20-30 years old, well built, and was wearing a black jacket.

Police believe the incidents could be linked. Det Sgt Alan Clements, investigating the crimes, said: ?We think this is a group which may have travelled in from another area.

?If they have called at your door and you turned them away then please contact us. If you have seen a group of young men acting suspiciously and knocking on doors in your area this could also be vital to our investigation.

?It is very likely they are using a vehicle so again, if you see something suspicious then report it.

?My advice to people in the area is not to open the door to anyone you don?t know who turns up unannounced.

?If you have elderly friends or relatives please ensure they are aware of this advice and stress how important it is not to open the door to anyone they don?t know. Please encourage them not to keep large amounts of cash at home.

?There is no such thing as the Water Board and any utility company will not turn up unannounced.

?We are investigating these incidents and looking at other distraction burglaries in Oxfordshire and the rest of the force to see if they are linked. Please help us catch these cowardly criminals.?

THAME Police are appealing for witnesses following the death of an elderly pedestrian on the A40 London Road between Tetsworth and Milton Common.
A blue Vauxhall Astra was in collision with a pedestrian at around 6.30pm yesterday (26/2). The pedestrian, a man in his 80s, was taken to the JR2 hospital but died from his injuries later that evening.

PC Eddie Hulme from Abingdon Roads Policing, said: “Please contact us if you saw what happened. I particularly need to speak to anyone who saw a man walking along the road before the collision. He was wearing a dark blue anorak and light grey trousers.”

If you have information please contact PC Hulme via 0845 8 505 505.

THAME Town Councillors are angry over the removal of the weekly Registration Service from the town hall.
Cllr David Dodds called the move “a cost cutting excercise” and said that he felt particularly sorry for the bereaved who now would have to go elsewhere to register the death of their loved ones.
“This is nothing short of an appaling diminution of the service,” he said.
Cllr Owen Davies said that the move, which will see the service transferred to a computerised service, was discriminatory and asked: “Why should there be one rule for Henley (which keeps its Satellite Registration Service) and another for Thame?”
Thame’s County Cllr, Nick Carter, said that he had lobbied hard against the move, but regrettably, had lost.
He explained that a national computerised system was to begin within the next month and that Oxfordshire had no option but to implement the new system which, he said, would be cheaper.
“The decision is painful and contentious,” he said, “but that’s the way it is.”

Cllr Carter was the only one to abstain from the vote, which saw all other councillors support Cllr Dodds’s Motion “That this council regrets the withdrawal of the Registration Service from Thame.”

THE Mayor of Thame, Cllr Nigel Champken-Woods, is to write to a young Long Crendon boy who organised a petition among staff and pupils at his school to ask for help in saving Thame’s toy shop.
The boy, a pupil at Ashfold School, said in an accompanying letter to Thame Town Council that his fellow pupils would have to travel much further to find a toy shop once the Pied Pedaller closes next December, and that this would be very bad for the environment.
The mayor told fellow councillors at their meeting on Tuesday, (20/02)that he would reply to the boy telling him that he was glad to have heard about the shop’s ‘stay of execution’ and that he hoped the shop owners would be able to find some alternative accommodation in Thame in the meantime.

Background

Over six years ago, the owners of Pied Pedaller sold the building in North Street to Oxfordshire County Council who then leased it back to the toy company.
That lease was due to end in June this year but the company asked the county council if it could vacate the building by February 24, for financial reasons. (Toy shops generally depend on the money they make on the run up to Christmas to carry them through the rest of the year, an advantage Pied Pedaller would not have had by closing in February.)
Then came the news that an agreement had been reached for the shop to remain open until the end of the year until demolition work would begin, so that the property did not sit empty for several months.

Caroline Taylor, who is in charge of library services for the county council, has apparently told the town council that the new library is expected to be opened around June, 2009.

A planning application to replace the Pied Pedaller with a new library for Thame, currently being discussed by Oxfordshire County Council and South Oxfordshire District Council, will be for demolition of the existing building and its replacement with a new, purpose build library.
The estimated cost will be

MEMBERS of Thame Choral Society and Thame Youth Club, were evacuated from their premises at Lord Williams’s school, Thame, last night, after a strong smell of gas was reported to the emergency services.
As a safety precaution, everyone was sent home, but no British Gas or other emergency vehicles were seen to arrive on site.
No further information as to whether the incident was a hoax or a genuine emergency is known at this time.

Earlier in the evening the school had been full of visitors for an Upper school parents’ evening but most of them had gone home by the time of the incident.

A PRE-INQUEST hearing into a drowning at the Thame Leisure Centre has been arranged – three and a half years after the incident.
See full report from the Bucks Free Press.
cut and paste this link:
http://www.thisisbucks.co.uk/display.var.1205010.0.nathan_drowning_preinquest_due.php

THAME Town Council had a demonstration last night of the problems facing town centre businesses battling for parking spaces with visitors and town centre residents.
Speaking in support of an appeal by a Transport Working Group of the 21st Century Thame Partnership, Mr Pramindar Mankoo, who runs a hair clinic in Upper High Street, was ‘interrupted’ by the alarm on his mobile phone. The ploy graphically demonstrated he said, what fellow business people have to deal with several times during their working day. To avoid getting a parking ticket and having to pay a fine, they have to move their cars between the three hour parking in the Market place, and the two hour parking opposite, currently policed by a traffic warden – an activity labelled ‘The Thame Shuffle’ by Working Group member, Mr Gary Ambrosini.
A dedicated business parking area, for which perhaps annual permits could be purchased for a modest price, could be part of the solution, suggested Mr Ambrosini.
The group were presenting the results of a survey and subsequent report called Parking For All, which included highlighting the current difficulties facing residents and workers in the town, and what they saw as a likely exacerbation of problems once so-called Decriminilisation of parking comes in around April 2008.
At that time, traffic warden Peggy Long MBE, who also spoke to the council, will be out of a job, and the control of parking will be managed by the county council, probably using private wardens – which, if the experience of other towns who are already under the new regime is anything to go by, will not be as flexible towards residents or businesses.

To help town centre residents, it was suggested an extension of the current residents permit scheme for those people living in the town centre, could cover other residential streets near by with parking restrictions, including North Street, Nelson Street and Park Street.

Town councillors in general, with one or two notable exceptions, were appreciative of the work put in by the group and accepted that there were problems and possible solutions.
It was resolved that residents parking would be tackled by the Planning committee working with both OCC and SODC, as well as the Transport Working Group, and that the problems of Commuter parking would be lead by Thame First, formerly the Thame Chamber of Commerce.

Photo: Courtesy of BBC

FOLLOWING its withdrawal from the annual Thame Festival last year, the carnival procession is set to make a come back – if sufficient support from local people is forthcoming.
Thame Thame Council has put its weight behind the event, although a council officer will liase between the council and the festival organisers, because no councillors have stepped forward to join this year’s organising committee.
Planning has begun for this year?s Thame Festival, and the organisers are hoping that this year?s event will be both a fun-filled family event and a celebration of the rich variety of groups, activities and businesses that operate in Thame.
The Festival F