Category: Thame news

THAME residents have donated 1,600 food items for refugees living rough in Northern France.

A collection was held on October 20, in Greyhound Walk, Thame, by the local organisation Bread and Roses for Refugees Thame. The items, including 548 tins of fish for much-needed protein, will be distributed directly to refugees in need by the partner organisation, Oxfordshire Refugee Solidarity.

Group member Helen Flitton said:”We were amazed by the interest and generosity shown by the people of Thame. We were delighted to be able to send so many food parcels, and we have collected enough tea and coffee for around 10,000 hot drinks to keep people warm over the winter months.”

The organisation runs several events or collections a year and can be contacted on breadandroses@gmail.com or on Facebook

THE Head of a Thame school has written to local media challenging an article by John Howell MP published in a local paper, in which the MP accuses responses to the government’s spending decisions on education of being ‘unfairly critical’.

David Wybron, Head of Lord Williams’s School, wrote:

“I am writing in response to John Howell’s piece in the Thame Gazette last week. His suggestion that people like me are being unfairly critical of the government’s spending decisions for schools is worrying.

“My response and the response of other headteachers is based on the reality on the ground and the impact of those decisions. It is vital to understand the whole picture and the impact that health, social and education policies are having on school budgets. This is not a confrontational approach but an honest one.

John writes about the range of claims and counter claims and the use of conflicting data. A year ago he wrote in this paper and in his blog about the use of the House of Commons library to get at the truth. He made a number of references in his blog to reports from the Institute of Fiscal Studies including their view that, ‘the average cash terms increase in funding per pupil between 2017-18 and 2019-20 was equivalent to a real terms funding freeze before costs.’ More recently, in September 2018, the Institute, in its annual report on education spending said, ‘while total school spending per pupil has fallen by 8% between 2009-10 and 2017-18, this has mainly been driven by a 55% cut to local authority spending and services and the large cuts to Sixth Form funding. John knows that ‘The Schools’ Budget’ does not include Sixth Form funding!”

£8 million cuts to support for vulnerable pupils

“Perhaps, this gets to the heart of the matter; the huge increase in costs which schools are facing on top of the real terms cuts to the Schools’ Budget and reduced Sixth Form allocations. This week sees the end of the County Council’s consultation on implementing the new funding formula arrangements for schools over the next two years. In particular, the consultation focused on how the County Council might be dealing with the £8 million shortfall in the High Needs Block. This is money intended to support Special Educational Needs and our most vulnerable students and families. Cuts in local government expenditure hits schools. When children’s centres close it affects primary schools. At Lord Williams’s we have seen the removal of services supporting our most vulnerable students in our Autism bases and we will be spending tens of thousands of pounds accessing alternative provision for our neediest students, including transport costs.

MP’s figures ‘grossly misleading’

“I agree that it is important to have constructive debate but it is disingenuous of politicians to keep on talking of record levels of spending. This is a meaningless comment given the increase in pupil numbers and increasing costs. This could be the time to review the whole direction of government thinking on education but a starting point is to tell it as it actually is.
Unfortunately, when Nick Gibb, the Schools’ Minister spoke recently about record levels of investment in education, his figures included the amount being spent on tuition fees by parents and students and the fees being paid by parents to send their children to public schools. If that isn’t grossly misleading, I don’t know what is. It certainly isn’t entering into a spirit of honest debate!

‘False picture being presented’

“It may be that the message from the government is ‘stop complaining and get on with it’. This seemed to be Phillip Hammond’s message last week with his insulting comment about funding for the ‘little extras’. Well it’s not a ‘little extra’ to want to access appropriate mental health support and to battle for more special school places in the County. My annoyance is that a false picture is being presented on funding. Headteachers are taking a moral position because they truly care about the young people they are responsible for. I look forward to reading the report from The Commons’ Library Group. I trust its scope will be broad to address the full picture of the work schools do and that this isn’t a mechanism for delaying action to support our young people.”

David Wybron
Headteacher
November 6, 2018

A new planning application – the fourth – has been submitted for a ‘Care Plus’ home for retired elderly on the controversial Elms site in Upper High Street, Thame, after a previous application for a care home was withdrawn earlier in the year.

The application is for: The erection of a ‘Housing with Care’ development (Use Class C2) and a communal residents centre; the creation of new public open space; the provision of new pedestrian/cycle links from Upper High Street to Elms Road and Elms Park; repairs and alterations to the boundary walls and entrance of Elms House; and associated infrastructure works and landscaping.

The applicant is again Rectory Homes Limited, this time together with FirstPort Retirement Property Services – The latter made the news back in January 2018, when residents at a retirement property in Bridport were reported to have been ‘trapped’ in their own homes for a week, when their lift broke, this just months after residents at retirement housing in Ipswich, managed by the same company, were reported to have been trapped in their homes four times in six months due to the lifts in their building breaking down. Again, in November 2017, the same thing happened at assisted living flats in Braintree, when some residents were apparently trapped in upper floor flats for a week.

Fire prosecution

The year before, FirstPort Retirement Property Services (operating as Peverel Ltd at the time, later rebranding) were reported as having pleaded guilty to four charges and fined thousands of pounds, after an 87-year-old perished in a fire at a residential home in Surrey, in 2011.

The new care home application

In a pre-planning consultation between the applicants with SODC, Planning Officer, Joan Desmond, she advised the applicants in a letter that: “…any plan must comply with the relevant parts of the Development Plan, the Core Strategy which was adopted in December 2012, the saved policies of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan 2011 and The Thame Neighbourhood Plan (TNP). Any development which is not in accordance with an up-to-date development plan should be refused unless ‘material considerations’ indicate otherwise.”

She advised the applicantsThe Thame Neighbourhood Plan (TNP) (Policy HA4) identifies the land at the Elms to be allocated for residential development for no more than 45 homes; this latest plan is for 80 units – 79 apartments and two houses.

Pressure on local services

Joan Desmond also advised that: “Whilst there is some need identified to make provision for our aging population, depending on the number of occupiers from outside the local area, the proposal would place additional pressure on local services and makes no provision for CIL to mitigate this impact.” (Care Homes have become the ‘go-to’ option for developers as they are excused from providing any affordable housing element and are zero-rated with regard to developer contributions towards local infrastructure.)

Environmental benefits

On the positive side, she said: “In environmental terms, the proposal has some benefits in providing housing in a sustainable town centre location, providing for the long term management of veteran trees and provision for additional pedestrian and cycle access to the town centre. The proposal would also result in reduced traffic generation compared to the extant planning permission (Ed. granted some time ago for 45 homes – see LINK). Against this, the proposal would harm the character and appearance of the Conservation Area and the setting of The Elms.”

The Officer’s advise concludes: “The revised scheme would still conflict with Policy CSH4 of the Core Strategy and Policies H9 and H10 of the TNP. the revised NPPF ( National Planning Policy Framework) makes it clear that where a planning application conflicts with an up-to-date development plan permission should not normally be granted.

‘Harm’ would outway public benefits

“The development would be contrary to the development plan as a whole and would not amount to sustainable development in view of the environmental harm to heritage assets. I consider that the harm is not outweighed by the public benefits of the proposal.”

You can see details of the application (including the full pre-planning advise) on SODC’s website by clicking this link: HERE

LORD Williams’s Lower School students have been busy making poppies and writing poetry for Remembrance Day and have created some exceptional displays of their work.

Students were taught to crochet during Humanities Club by Amy Hackett from the Technology department and the school’s English Faculty organised poetry workshops and homework tasks.

Melissa Lancashire, Teacher of English and Humanities at the school, who led on this work, said: “We felt it was important for students to know about the wonderful work Thame Remembers and Thame Town Council have done in researching and commemorating those servicemen from the local area. I hope the students engage with the displays and remembrance events, and start to reflect on the enormity and significance of events 100 years ago.”

The school will be holding a two Minute Silence on Friday, November 9,  to commemorate the Fallen.

THE public launch of a Thame Community Land Trust (CLT), which will provide affordable homes for local people, will happen ‘in the near future’, according to the man leading the project.

Cllr Bob Austin, who Chairs the Thame Neighbouhood Plan Continuity Committee, reported the progress of the Thame CLT at a meeting of the committee tonight (Tuesday, 06/11).

The money for the Legal formation of a CLT is in hand, he reported, and the various Working Parties involved are working well, but that ‘the missing part of the jigsaw’ is the long-delayed Housing Needs Survey, from South Oxfordshire District Council.

Cllr Austin has now escalated the need for an updated Housing Needs analysis for Thame to the Leader of SODC, Cllr Jane Murphy, asking her to review the Thame CLT’s progress, which her council is blocking.

“We wait, hopeful of some action!” he concluded.

DEMOLITION work has now begun of the old Thame Police Station in Greyhound Walk, despite opposition from both the district and town councils, following a successful second appeal to a planning inspector on September 28, 2018.

The site was sold by Thames Valley Police to Churchill Retirement Living Ltd. under an agreement made in 2013. An initial planning application for retirement homes on the site was refused in 2014. A subsequent planning appeal brought about by Churchill was also turned down in early 2016. Churchill sought permission again for a revised scheme of 41 retirement flats, later in 2016.

Although now effectively being built within planning law, the Town Council has expressed concerns about the amount of amenity space, potential noise and air quality issues and where residents may park their vehicles. The council has also said that visitors, delivery companies and support services may also have problems with access and parking. In in a letter of opposition to the plans, sent to the planning inspector, Thame’s Neighbourhood Plan Continuity Officer wrote:

“The design leads to a natural height restriction to the site’s parking area and main entrance. This will certainly prevent access by emergency and patient transfer ambulances, day care minibus transport, many delivery vehicles and all of the District’s refuse vehicles. The main access is off a short, sloping approach road that has a no-waiting restriction, applied because of highways safety concerns.”

Legal advice

Having taken legal advice about challenging the planning inspector’s decision that there would be significant cost and little chance of the challenge succeeding, the town council has now said: “With regret, the decision has therefore been made to take no further action in this specific matter. The Town Council is deeply disappointed at this outcome and will continue to do all it can to prevent being overruled by such poor decisions in the future.”