Category: Thame news

JUST as we are all being urged to ‘Try Thame First, the fame of Umberto’s, the Specialist, Italian food shop in the town, has reached the National papers.
Last weekend, this award-winning, local business was featured in the Independent newspaper, which featured Umberto Della Valli talking about his passion for real, good quality, Italian food.
Follow the Link
to read the whole article.

Umberto’s epitomises the type of quality, independent retailer that characterises Thame as somewhere to enjoy the good, old-fashioned qualities of personal service and quality products that cannot be found in the supermarket of ‘cloned’ High Streets of other towns.

LOCAL doctors fear that Thame could lose its community hospital if proposed county boundaries to health care management are implemented.
Lead by Dr Ken Birch at the Health Centre in East Street, Thame, a petition and public meeting have been set up and the public are being urged to sign the petition which calls for the hospital to remain in the cross-boundary, Vale of Aylesbury Primary Care Trust.
The Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority is looking at merging primary care trusts to bring them in to line with local government boundaries.

Sarah Taylor, chairman of Thame Hospital League of Friends, is reported to have said: “This move causes us great concern.
“It is vital that we demonstrate just how strongly people on both sides of the boundary feel about their hospital.”

GP, Dr Ken Burch has said that in his view, the boundary issue would seriously undermine “the highly successful cross-boundary co-operation between the two Thame practices and three others in Haddenham, Princes Risborough and Chinnor.”
He fears that Thame could go the same way as Watlington and Burford community hospitals, which were both closed by The Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust, and pointed out that both Bicester and Henley’s hospitals are currently under threat too.
The public meeting will be at Thame town hall at 6.30pm on Monday, March 6.

To read The Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority’s reasoning behind the proposed changes, visit: Link

LORD WILLIAMS’S School has appointed a new, permanent Headteacher.
Mr David Wybron, the Acting Head, was selected from a short list of three, which included ex Deputy Head, David Jones, who is the current Head of a school in Kidlington.

A NEW website for children is to go live on Monday, February 27, aimed at encouraging them to read more books.
Illustrated by Korky Paul, the Oxford-based creator of drawings for Winnie the Witch, the website has been created by Oxfordshire County Council to introduce more of the Internet generation to its libraries.

The website, which was designed with the help of young readers, the Witney Worms Reading Group, explains how to join a library and what services ? which include free Internet access, music and films as well as books and newspapers – are on offer.

It also includes links to sites of use for homework, a quiz for five to 11-year-olds and an interactive map so visitors can find their nearest library.

Visiters to the Kids and Teens @ Libraries website, http://kidlib.oxfordshire.gov.uk
will find information about library events, school visits, books for babies and younger children and how to keep kids safe on the Internet. Adults can safely let children use the Internet in the county council?s libraries because the computers have filtered access.

Carol Stitson, the county?s childrens’ and youth librarian, said that in Oxfordshire the number of issues of children?s books is rising rapidly but that a lot of people had never been inside a library.
?If we can just get children and young people into our libraries, we know they will find it an amazing resource,? she said.

County councillor, Don Seale, the Cabinet member with responsibility for libraries, said: ?It may seem ironic that we?re using a website to reach children more used to the Internet in order to encourage them to read books, but in fact books and Internet work very well together as sources of information and entertainment.?

THE district council is considering lauching a fortnightly collection of garden waste from wheeled bins in the area.
This follows a recent trial scheme using eco-sacks. South Oxfordshire District Council, in line with its policy to reduce landfill, is now considering a new, improved and more permanent garden waste collection scheme from April 2006.
The service will provide residents with a fortnightly kerbside service (no booking required) from wheeled bins that would cost them

A Public Meeting, as part of a Community Consultation process about development plans for Headington hospitals, has been arranged.
The meeting will take place at Lecture Theatre One, John Radcliffe Hospital at 6pm, March 2.

For details of Agenda: http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/News%20Headlines.htm

WARNINGS have been issued about a new telephone scam which aims to fool people into giving the security number on the back of their credit or debit cards.
A caller claiming to be from Visa or Mastercard has been calling card owners to tell them that they have:”….been flagged for an unusual purchase pattern”. After a short conversation the caller, who claims to be from the Security and Fraud department at Visa, asks to verify that the person is in possession of their card. He does this by asking the cardholder to “turn over their card and look for some numbers”. These numbers should never be divulged to anyone who cannot prove their identity conclusively.
For more information, contact Nigel Strick on 01865 815601
Trading Standards are also alerting people to watch out for bogus TV repair companies after a recent BBC Watchdog feature. Top tips for avoiding the TV repair scam are:

SINCE the announcement that the people of Thame are to be consulted about converting their town hall into a library, the idea has not attracted much support locally.
Local author, Sarah Hayes, who has written more than twenty books for children and was the originator of the “Fimbles”, has added her voice to opposers of the idea.
She has written to the Town Clerk and the Mayor: “I write as someone who loves Thame and as a professional writer. In both capacities I urge Thame Town Council not to make a hasty decision about the siting of Thame’s long-awaited new library. The capital allocated by Oxfordshire County Council should be used to create a purpose-built library for the twenty-first century, not one that is carved out of an unsuitable nineteenth-century building. OCC has the ability to delay the allocated capital spend. It is vital, therefore, that our local authorities take time to achieve the most suitable site for Thame’s new library instead of opting for the ‘quick fix’ offered by the Town Hall or OCC’s two other preferred sites.

The Town Hall is not appropriate for change of use to a library for the following reasons:

1. National library surveys have shown a decline in the use of libraries in all areas of the country. In some counties library hours have been reduced; in others book buying has been cut. The places where libraries are thriving are those where libraries are new built and given added value or combined with other facilities and attractions to bring the public through the doors.

2. Today’s successful libraries are busy, welcoming places, frequently offering an on-site caf

FAMILY and friends of an injured Thame University student, whose family are travelling for up to seven hours a day to visit him in hospital, are campaigning to get him moved to Stoke Mandeville hospital.
Martin Gadd, or ‘Gadget’ as he is known to his friends, is unlikely to walk again after breaking his neck in a fall during a night out in London recently.

Gadget’s parents, John and Delina are unhappy about the delay to get their son moved to Stoke Mandeville’s Spinal unit from Kings College Hospital in Brixton. They travel by bus or train every day to be with their son, who has experienced many set backs since the accident including an undected blockage in a catheter and breathing difficulties.

According to a family friend who helped organise a quiz recently to raise money for Gadget, twice Kings College Hospital has ‘lost’ the fax number for Stoke Mandeville hospital, adding to the delay in organising his transfer.

The matter has now been taken up with the hospital’s Patient Liaison Officer and anyone who would like to help in anyway or keep up with Gadget’s progress, can visit a special website set up to help and support Gadget and his family. The address of the website is: www.davidanthony.co.uk/Gadget/news.htm