Category: Thame news

A GROUP from Thame, including the Mayor, Nigel Champken-Woods, returned triumphant last night from Montesson in France, after a weekend selling English products in their French twin?s annual Christmas market.
The Thame stallholders threw their all into their roles and would have given their counterparts in a Marrakech bazaar a run for their money (apart from the mayor who, sporting a rather Wagnerian Father Christmas hat, complete with plaits, would probably have been arrested).
They completely sold out of Christmas cards, Christmas pudding, Brandy butter, orange marmalade – and Christmas crackers which are still a novelty in France.
For the children of Montesson, the Thame Twin Sets (our very own, ?Stitch & Bitch? group) had hand-knitted miniature jumpers and scarves to fit small teddy bears ? or in one case (see picture), a treasured frog.
Apart from some showers on the Saturday morning, which temporarily brought water cascading in through the canvas walls of their shelter, the rest of the weekend was fine and mild, reaching at one point, 19 degrees Celsius, which put some urgency into the work of a sculptor shaping a wonderful angel out of a block of ice with a chain saw!
Hot coffee and cake (made to a special recipe of the Queen Mother?s), was provided by an English ex-patriot to sustain the, by Sunday, rather hoarse Thame contingent. The Montesson twinning committee kindly provided crepes and galettes to keep them going throughout the day and the German?s from Baesweiler, sold hot spiced wine to keep up the spirits.
As usual the Montesson families who hosted the English, many of whom themselves were involved in running stalls, nonetheless excelled themselves with wonderful food and convivial company in the evenings -the top topic of conversation being the forthcoming elections in France and the chances of S

ALTHOUGH the Thame link to the Lewknor Taxibus Service was discontinued some weeks ago, through lack of use, alternatives involving Thame may be reconsidered next year.
The service, which has helped reduced the number of cars parking contributed to reduced car parking at the Lewknor Interchange at junction six of the M40, was due to end at the end of the year when government funding ran out.
The service has been expensive to subsidise and the County Council decided it was unable to fund it following the end of central government grant.

In the mean time, OCC has granted a four month contract extension for the bus service that links Watlington with the M40 Lewknor Interchange (Junction 6) and the Oxford Tube London bus service.

The section of the route to Stokenchurch, funded by Buckinghamshire County Council, will cease at the end of January, but the Oxfordshire part of the service will now continue to run until June 2007.

The service, known as the Lewknor Taxibus, will now link Watlington – Lewknor Interchange – Kingston Blount and Chinnor from Monday, January 29 to Friday, June 1st, 2007.

The service was set up as a government-funded Rural Bus Challenge project with the aim of reducing the volume of cars parking on the roadside on the B4009 and in Lewknor village, reducing the amount of car movements and opening up a link to London for people without immediate access to a car.

Cllr David Robertson, the county council?s cabinet member for transport, said: ?The county council sees little prospect of the Taxibus service continuing in its present form beyond our June 2007 review of services.

?We are strongly recommending that local parish councils and local groups put every effort into establishing a community transport based longer-term solution to the provision of public transport links between Watlington and the Oxford Tube coach interchange at Lewknor?.

Photo: Flash back to the launch of the Taxi bus last year, with the then, deputy Mayor, Nigel Champken-Woods, and Thame Town Cllrs Peter Cockayne and David Laver.

THAME Town Council are considering how to respond to an increasing number of requests from residents who wish to take over small parcels of green space next to their properties.
Discussions arose at last night’s meeting of the council’s Policy and Resources committee, which focused on one particular request from a resident in Chalgrove Road, who wants to acquire a strip of grass verge next to his house so that he can move his boundary fence by 2.4m to enclose the area.
The resident claims to have maintained the area, which the town council owns, since moving into the property some years ago.
In general, councillors were not happy to see these small, green parcels of land lost and are to consider several options, including awarding licences to residents who wish to maintain the land, but not take over ownership.

THAME Town Council is to seek funding to improve the town hall clock which has not kept good time for some time.
The idea is to replace the mechanism with a more modern system that can be controlled to strike hours, and toll special occassions like New Year.
The council is also to consider having the design picked out in gold and possibly, illuminating the clock face at night.
Inproving the clock to raise the profile of the town hall was one of the suggestions in the recent Lockwood Report that looked at ways to improve the economic viability and vitality of the town.
The council is to ask SODC for

FIREFIGHTERS are warning that children who are curious about fire can kill, and are tackling the problem head-on.
Oxfordshire County Council?s firefighters are tackling the problem of ?fire setting? by educating children and young people who are fascinated by fire.

As part of the county council?s ?365 Alive? safety campaign, the Fire and Rescue Service is highlighting its fire setter intervention scheme that is aimed at changing the behaviour of children and young people who intentionally start fires.

What is ?fire setting??
Some children as young as two years have a natural curiosity with matches and cigarette lighters and older children and teenagers sometimes start fires out of malice or to get attention.
Trained advisers from the Fire Setter Intervention Scheme are educating children and young people when there are signs of ?fire setting? behaviour. They work with parents to explain the dangers of fire and the possible consequences of deliberately starting fires.

Worried parents can call the fire service to report their concerns about potentially dangerous fire activity and to get help from the scheme.

Parents should look out for:

IT now appears that this incident occurred around 7.20am on Wednesday morning, November 15, at the Aylesbury roundabout, Thame.
It followed an altercation 20 minutes earlier at the A418 junction with the M40, near the Wheatley services, shortly after 7am.
Police are trying to get CCTV footage from the junction and would like to hear from any witnesses to either incident.
All that is known at the moment is that a black car was involved.
Call Crime Stoppers on 0800 555111 with any information.

AS part of a new initiative to reduce crimes involving knives, Thame Valley Police are to carry random airport-type scans in public places, including schools.
Thames Valley Police is launching Operation Blunt tomorrow (Tuesday, November 21) to tackle knife crime and reduce the number of people who routinely carry knives on the streets.

During the National Knife Amnesty (24 May ? 30 June) 4,300 knives were handed in over a period of two months in the Thames Valley. In 2005 there were 287
knife incidents in Oxfordshire.

To search out knives, officers across the Force will be using search arches, similar to the metal detectors used for security at airports. The arches will be used in public places, such as school gates, shopping centres and transport hubs.

Acting Chief Superintendent Paul Tinnion, leading on Operation Blunt, said: ?We will be working jointly with schools and colleges, using the search arches at random locations and times. The detectors will be used both as a deterrent to reinforce the message that if you consider carrying a knife you will get caught. We will also use the search arches at knife crime hotspots to catch and prosecute people who are carrying knives illegally.?

The Damilola Taylor Trust is working with Thames Valley Police on Operation Blunt and has developed leaflets to give to people as they pass through the search arches to explain what the campaign is about and why carrying a knife is dangerous.

Heidi Watson, Chief Executive of the Trust, said: ?If you carry a knife, it could get used against you. This is a very important campaign and we are really pleased to be working with Thames Valley Police to get the message out. We want to build a culture of safety not of self protection.?

Research conducted for the Trust found that four out of five knife crime offenders are aged between 12 and 20 and one third of victims are aged between 10 and 17 years.

Bus shelters and outdoor advertising sites will be featuring safety messages as part of the campaign. The adverts picture a person carrying a knife and the message, ?Think this keeps you safe? It could cost you your life it it?s used against you?. The major advertising campaign is part of a bid to raise awareness of the dangers associated with carrying a knife.
Acting Chief Supt. Tinnion said:?People seem to think carrying a knife keeps them safe when in fact it could get used against them. If you carry a knife you are also running the risk of getting caught, put before a court and you could get up to four years in prison.?

Operation Blunt will run across all five Basic Command Units in the Thames Valley and will be tailored to combat the knife crime problem by each area.

THAME POLICE are looking into several incidents of vandalism carried out since January this year, at Thame library in Southern Road.
Since the year began, the library has reported six incidences of criminal damage to the front display case which houses the library notice board.

The dates of the incidents are:
One in January then
October 19-20
October 20-21
October 25-26
Octobrt 26-27
November 18-19

Anyone with any information about who may have been involved in these incidents or who may have seen them happening, is asked to contact PC Hounslow at Thame Police Station on 08458 505 505, Or Crimestoppers if they wish to remain anonymous on 0800 555 111.

NEWS is coming in of an incident yesterday afternoon in which a van driver was chased seven miles to Thame from the M40, and shot at, in a suspected case of road rage.
It is understood that the rear window of the van was smashed by what appeared to be an air gun.
The driver was apparently unhurt.
More information if and when it becomes available.

CHINNOR Rugby Club has sacked its head coach, John Brodley, just seven months after he had led them into the National League.
Read full story as it appeared in the Oxford Mail today: http://www.oxfordmail.net/display.var.1027479.0..php