Category: Thame news

THAME town councillors will decide tomorrow whether or not to spend over

A NEW Year drive to reduce the number of robberies across Oxfordshire is kicking off with a series of adverts designed to help young people avoid becoming easy targets for robbers.

Bus shelters, free-standing advertising sites and BT phone boxes across Thames Valley are brandishing the adverts which form part of the Force?s Safer Streets campaign ? a six month crackdown on violent crime.

The adverts feature a young man out at night on his own using his mobile phone, with the slogan: ?He?s on his own?and on his phone. He?s a robber?s target?.

The advert forms part of the Operation Robbery strand of Safer Streets. This part of the campaign is particularly targeting young people as 10-16 year-olds and 17-25 year-olds are the age groups most targeted by robbers. Mobile phones and cash are the items most commonly stolen.

One of the main aims of this part of the campaign is to remind young people that there are several simple steps they can take to help prevent them becoming a robbery victim.

Det Insp Rebecca mears head of the Oxford Police Priority Crime Teams, said: ?Most robberies are not planned, but carried out by offenders who see a chance and take it – they are looking for an easy strike.

?One of the messages we are trying to get across is that by taking a few very straight-forward steps young people can greatly reduce their chances of becoming a target.

?Most of it is common sense, such as keeping your mobile and wallet out of sight when you?re out and about, taking extra care when you get money out of the cash point, and staying with mates rather than going off on your own. This will all help make you less of an easy target.

?In Oxford we are detecting more robberies compared with last year and we will keep the pressure on the criminals.?

More tips on how to stay safe can be found at www.thamesvalley.police.uk/saferstreets

Operation Robbery is a renewal of the campaign that targeted street robbers in 2002, and although personal robberies are continuing to drop across the Force. Between April and December 2005 robberies had reduced by 10 per cent compared with the same period the previous year Thames Valley Police is determined to keep the pressure on persistent offenders to ensure this trend continues. Information from crime reports and intelligence will be used to direct officer activity on a daily basis.

Police are also encouraging people to log the details of their phone on the Mobile Equipment National Database (MEND) so if it is lost or stolen it may be returned to you.

Find out more about the Safer Streets campaign by logging onto www.thamevalley.police.uk/saferstreets

Photo Copyright of Thames Valley Police

SINCE the announcement by Thame Town Council that it will not be selling tickets for local organisations once the TIC has closed, Thame Players have received several offers from town centre businesses to act as a ticket agency.
Thame Players’ spokesman, Tony Long, who has publicly voiced his disapproval at the town council’s decision not to take over ticket sales at One Stop Shop, told ThameNews.Net:”I never thought we would have a problem finding a way round selling tickets but my particular annoyance was the way the facility provided by the TIC was apparenty just abandoned. It is interesting that other people in the town have displayed the public spiritedness that the town council appears not to have shown.
“We still have a couple of months to go before the TIC closes and in the meantime we have narrowed the offers down to two or three, and my colleagues and I will decide which offer to accept.”
Mr Long also asked to put the record straight on a comment attributed to the Town Clerk, that appeared in the Thame Gazette recently, which suggested that Thame Players was a commercial organisation and so was not able to be supported by the town council.
“We are in fact a not-for-profit organisation and a registered charity,”he said. “No body in the organisation is paid a penny.”

DEVELOPMENTS that are suspected to have been put up without Planning Permission can now be more easlily reported to the district council.

South Oxfordshire District Council now has a form on its website that can be used to report suspected unauthorised developments. See: Link

FOLLOWING reports in local and national press, and TV news coverage about the closure of Thame’s Tourist Information
Centre, the mayor of Thame, Cllr David Laver, has issued a statement.
The statement reads:”The recent debate about the closure of Thame?s Tourist Information Centre (TIC) seems to be generating more heat than light. The TIC has over the years provided a valuable service to the town. South Oxfordshire District Council, for reasons which have been aired, has decided that it can no longer fund the centre.

“Over a long period, we as councillors have seen a benefit in combining all the information sources in Thame at the One Stop Shop. The present site in the Town Hall is limited for space. However, the Council has decided to set up a Tourist Information Point to provide local information services that the TIC used to provide. For this we will receive no additional funding.

“I recently picked up a tourist leaflet for Oxfordshire provided by the District Councils which gave the address for Tourist Information at the Town Hall. Someone seems to have anticipated this move.

“We do not feel that at present we have the resources to provide all of those services including Ticket Sales, but we will keep this under review. In the short term, it may be possible for Thame Players and others to set up a desk in the Town Hall manned by volunteers to sell tickets.

“Please be assured that Town Councillors would like to offer what assistance we can to all of the organisations within the town”.

NB Thame retailer, Keith Slater, has offered to act as a ticket agency for local entertainment groups from his shop, Essence, in Buttermarket Thame.

EMERGENCY planners in Oxfordshire will call on the expertise of the Women?s Institute to help care for people affected by a major incident in the county.
The WI has been added to the list of organisations who will respond to an incident, along with the emergency services, local councils and many other organisations.

John Kelly, Oxfordshire County Council?s Emergency Planning Officer, said: “We are pleased that the WI network is to offer its expertise and augment the work of the organisations who are already signed up to help in an emergency.
“In the present security climate and with the threat of severe weather, numbers of volunteers throughout the communities of Oxfordshire will help the responding agencies. We hope to use WI volunteers in our rest centres and in their own communities during any severe weather incidents as well as for responding to other major incidents.”

POLICE in Thame have reported a relatively trouble-free Christmas and New Year, despite fears that extended opening times for pubs and other premises licensed to sell alcohol, would increase drunkeness and criminality.
Inspector Stuart Dunbar, from Thame Police Station, told ThameNews.Net: “After a slight increase in minor disorder during late November/early December, I tasked officers for high visibilty patrols in the town centre and we visited all the main licensed premises to see what their arrangements were for Christmas and the New Year.
“Despite an increase in the number of people about over Christmas and New Year, their were no arrests. We had only one minor alternation between two people who knew each other and that was it.
“I would like to thank landlords in the town for behaving so responsibly and contributing to what was a pleasant surprise for us!”

OXFORDSHIRE County Council has stepped in to save a successful child accident prevention scheme under threat because of lack of funding.

The Injury Minimisation Programme for Schools (IMPS) is run by the John Radcliffe Hospital and is delivered to 10-year-olds in Oxfordshire schools. But the programme, currently funded through a Charitable Trust, was facing problems securing funding in Oxfordshire for next year.

Now the council has made

Berkeley Homes have submitted a planning application to South Oxfordshire District Council for the redevelopment of the former Rycotewood College.
The plans are being made available for inspection on Tuesday, January 17, between 3pm and 7pm in the Workhouse building, at the entrance to the site. Representatives from Berkeley Homes will be available to answer any questions regarding the plans.
The plans include the building of over 100 new homes and the demolition of many of the old victorian buildings, with the exception of the Old Workhouse which is a listed building.

Copies of the plans are available to view at the One Stop Shop in Thame Town Hall.

For further information, please call 01235 537457 or contact:
Gemma Gibbs (Marketing Manager)
Berkeley Homes (Oxford & Chiltern) Ltd
Berkeley House
Abingdon Science Park
Barton Lane
Abingdon
Oxfordshire OX14 3NB

LOCAL residents are being asked to be extra vigilant and look out for elderly or vulnerable friends or neighbours, following distraction burglaries in which men have posed as utility workers.
Two such incidents have taken place in Abingdon during the last 48 hours and in one case, the two male offenders were wearing high visibility yellow jackets.
Both incidents happened in the early evening, two white males in each case. Although their description did not match, it is know that sometimes a group of people can be working together and travelling an area.

As a general reminder, always ask callers for identification, do not let anybody in your home (especially outside the usual working day), who does not prove to your satisfaction that they are genuine.

Anyone who hears or sees anything suspicious should call the police on 08458 505505 or If you think a crime is taking place, call 999.

Photo: Copyright of Wolverhampton City Council