Category: Thame news

WORK is to begin today to repair the cracked surface on part of the Phoenix Trail.
The section between Penn Farm and Grove Hill Farm (Towersey) will be closed from today and the trail will be diverted down farm drives onto Manor Road, then back onto the trail.
The work is to be carried out by SUSTRANS and is expected to take about a week.

PHOTO: Town Cllr, Lionel Morbey and Cathy Gaulter, both regular users of the Phoenix Trail, try out a Dutch shopping bike at the culmination of a bike ride from Oxford to Cambridge recently.
The ride was organised by SUSTRANS to celebrate 10,000 miles of National Cycle Way, much of it built over the last ten years since the organisation received funding from the National Lottery.

THE Vale Of Aylesbury Primary Care Trust, told ThameNews.Net today that it is still pursuing a business case for the development of the current hospital site to a 24 bed hospital.
This, they say, will be submitted to Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority for approval in the near future.

Correction: The report by the Chairman of the League of Friends of Thame Community Hospital, quoted in Friday’s news about the hospital, was in fact her 2004 report and not 2005.

THAME Community Hospital, whose future has been described as being ‘in limbo,’ is to receive a substantial bequest from a Thame resident who died earlier in the year.
Well-known and long-time resident, Mr Arthur Letts,who lived at The Crook, Lower High Street, had divided his estate between two Thame charities, one of them being the Thame Community Hospital, to which he left over

THAME Town Touncil are looking into the possibility of re-using old graves, between 50 and 100 years old, as space in the church yard of St Mary’s church is running out.

THE Town Council have recommended that planning permission for a 0.914M wicket style wooden fence to the front boundary of a house in Montrose Way, be rejected.
Councillors feel that such a fence might set a precident on the Lee Park estate which was originally designed with open plan frontages.

A MINUTES silence was held prior to the Town Council’s meeting on Tuesday evening, in sympathy with all those involved in the tragic death of 14 year-old Chloe Owens, of Haddenham, last Friday.
Chloe’s funeral will be held next Tuesday, October 11, at 4pm, at Haddenham Parish Church.

THE District council has begun a consultation on how best to go about providing free, local bus travel to elderly and disabled people.
This follows an announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in March, that such free travel would be made available throughout England.
Such a change will put pressures on the district council’s concessionary fares budget and so one of the options open to it is to change the eligibility for travel tokens, providing tokens only to those who most need them.

THIS week’s episode of Midsommer Murders includes shots filmed around Thame, including Honour’s Estate Agents,
and Broadcastle Bank in the High Street.

THAME police would like to hear from anyone with information about the following crimes committed recently:-
Wednesday, October 5, between 9.45am and 6pm, Elms Road, Thame; front off-side window of a car smashed and the glove box searched.

Wednesday, Sept 28/Thurs 29, between 7pm and 8am, Fridays Lane, Wheatley; a bird bath stolen from front garden.

Tuesday Sept 27/Wed 28, between 7pm and 8am, Thame Road, Little Milton, a car stolen.

Contact: The Police Enquiry Line 0845 850 5505, or Crime Stoppers, anonymously on: 0800 555111

THE local policeman who found the Great Train Robbers? hideout, will be giving a talk about the infamous crime at a special police night this weekend.

Members of the public are invited to hear retired Thames Valley constable, John Woolley, who was the village bobby in Brill at the time, tell the story of his involvement in the crime, one of the most infamous robberies in British history.

Thames Valley roads policing officers will also be on hand, with a police motorcycle, speed detection van and traffic patrol car to talk to people about their jobs and show them their vehicles.

The Great Train Robbery was the name given to the train robbery that was committed on 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire.

The Royal Mail’s Glasgow to London travelling post office (TPO) train was stopped by tampered signals. The 15-member gang, led by Bruce Reynolds and including Ronnie Biggs and Buster Edwards, got away with

Thame Leisure centre are hosting a charity Open Day from which the proceeds raised will be donated to the Martin Gadd Charity and the Brain Wave children?s charities.
Martin, known to his friends as ‘Gadget’ was paralysed from the waist down after a fall whilst on a night out with friends.
The programme of events, designed for the whole family, includes: –

AN application for Planning Permission to demolish the existing banqueting suite at the Spread Eagle Hotel, Thame, and replace it with retirement homes, has been withdrawn.
Thame Town Council turned down the application to build 10, three-bedroomed, terraced, retirement homes, back in July, on the grounds that it constituted overdevelopment of the site.
Mr David Barrington, had told the town council’s planning committee that the banqueting suite had become unprofitable over recent months.

NB The above was before the closure of Thame United as a venue, but it is not known whether that loss has meant an up-turn in bookings for the Spread Eagle’s banqueting and other facilities as a venue.
Awaiting comment from Proprietor.

Over 50 years after working as a fireman on the Chinnor and Watlington branch line from Princes Risborough, Malcolm Stottor returned to Chinnor station last Sunday act as a guest fireman on the 11.00 am departure.

Malcolm joined British Railways in 1951 at Slough engine shed, which provided the locomotives and crews for the Chinnor and Watlington branch, and was soon working regularly on the branch.

In 2007, the Chinnor and Princes Risborough Railway will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the closure of the line to passenger trains and they are keen to hear from any former employees who worked on the line with a view to holding a reunion and running a special service nearer the anniversary.

They would also like to hear from any members of the public who used the Chinnor and Watlington branch passenger train services before it closed in 1957, with their memories of the line.

For further information please telephone Brian Dickson on 01296 622569.

THE 14 year-old Lord Williams’s student who was fatally injured at the week-end, has been named as Chloe Owens, of Haddenham.
Chloe died after being hit by a car whilst crossing the Thame by-pass on Friday evening. Her many friends held a candle-lit vigil on Saturday night near the Aylesbury round-about where the accident happened, and where a sea of flowers now covers the ground near the scene.

Chloe’s family today issued the following statement:

“Chloe was a girl who brought an enormous amount of joy to all who knew her. She was a wonderful daughter to Suzanne and Stephen and a close sister to Natalie and Rachel. Her death will leave a very large hole in our extensive family.

Chloe was a very friendly girl who had no sense of barriers when making friends. She was a kind and forgiving person who could see no wrong. Her sunny personality will be remembered by all who were fortunate to come into contact with her.

Chloe will also be remembered for her ?dry? sense of humour and how she would often mimic others. She adored children and wanted to work with them in the future. She attended Lord Williams School in Thame, and it was in Thame that she loved to spend her leisure time with her close friends.

We could not have wished for a better daughter and sister, she made all of us very proud. She had a beautiful, smile that could light the world, and often did.
We will miss her so much. We are honoured that we had time to be part of her life.”