Category: Thame news

THAME town councillors have delayed making a decision on whether or not to support a 20mph speed limit in the centre of the town, while they await clarification of accident statistics for the proposed area.
At the end of a heated discussion about the proposal at last night?s Planning Committee meeting, during which Cathy Gaulter-Carter spoke in favour of the proposal, and Mr Richard Hughes spoke against, it was also agreed to put the matter before the full town council.
Confusion over the accident statistics followed representation by Mr Anthony Kirkwood, of the Road Safety Department at Oxfordshire County Council, and figures researched by Thame resident, Mr Richard Hughes.
Mrs Gaulter-Carter said that she regretted that Aylesbury Road had not been included in the proposed zone but was of the opinion that there were many near-miss type accidents around the town which were not recorded. The proposal, she felt, would increase the perception of increased safety in the town by those wanting to cycle rather than drive in the area, especially in the future when more children and adults would be using the Phoenix Trail once the extension to the school and Leisure Centre had been completed.
?By adding just a few seconds to their journey,? she said, ?by driving at 20 mph, drivers could perhaps save a life.?
Mr Hughes called the proposal ?Draconian?, stating that his research into accident figures over the last five years showed that no benefit would be gained by speed reduction. He maintained that more and higher speed humps would be required and that the increased signage would ?blight? the town. Mr Hughes also stated that he had been informed by two ambulance trusts that emergency response times would be reduced by the proposals.
Mr Kirkwood explained that the county council intended to carryout a short consultation to confirm that the community does not, as a whole support the scheme, in which case it would be abandoned. He reiterated that Thame Town Council, as it was then constituted, did narrowly approve the scheme in 2002, but councillors present at last night?s meeting, said that, as far as they could remember, the proposals at that time only included the town centre.
Mr Kirkwood explained that it was part of the government?s Road Safety Strategy to have 20 mph limits in town centres and that Thame had been chosen as one of the sites to test the idea.
Cllr Nigel Champken-Woods said that, whilst he agreed there was a problem in the Aylesbury Road, he thought the expenditure was unnecessary in an area where, he considered it was difficult to travel at more than 20mph anyway.
Cllr David Laver, said: ?admittedly the scheme does seem to have grown since the original proposal but we could be throwing the baby out with the bathwater if we reject it in its entirety. In my view it is vital that we keep some areas with lower speed limits, especially now that the cycle routes across Thame are out.?
?There are people who break the speed limit between speed humps,? he said, ?and I would be in favour of the county council looking at the number of vehicles using the town centre with a view to considering pedestrianisation of that area. Both these proposals would encourage traffic to go around the by-pass.?
Cllr Champken-Woods said that new signage was soon to go in place by Lord Williams?s school to send drivers around the town to go to Chinnor, which he felt would alleviate some of the problems.
The discussion also included the pros and cons of so-called courtesy crossings.

ED. What do YOU think about the proposed 20 mph Zone, full details of which can be viewed at the town hall? Email your views to: editor@thamenews.net

DESPITE a very dry year so far, Thame Gardeners have excelled themselves and once more produced some fine examples of their green-fingered genius in this year?s Thame in Bloom competition.
The over-all winner for 2005 is Mr Bill Sellwood, of 13 Hampden Avenue, Thame, who, with his wife Margaret who shares the work, has taken the first prize for the first time, having come second on two previous occasions when they lived in Churchill Crescent.
Bill, who retires in November, after 19 years with a local cleaning company, did at one time work for Thame Town Council helping to maintain the town?s flower beds and parks. Margaret has worked at Thame Police Station as a cleaner for over 20 years and between them they choose the seed from catalogues or collect them from their own plants, raise seedlings in their two greenhouses and generally share the planting, feeding and watering throughout the growing season.
The resulting garden of both perennials and annuals attracts admiring gazes and comments from everyone who passes by and is a tribute to the Sellwoods? hard work and enthusiasm.
Bill puts his love of gardening down to the influence of his father who had a small market garden in Tetsworth for many years. The green-finger genes continue to be passed on down to the younger Sellwood generation ? daughter, Shirley, who lives in Pearce Way, won first prize in the Maisonette or Retirement bungalow section of the competition.
The judge, Tony Buggins, who is Vice Chair of Thame In Bloom, made the following comments about the Sellwood?s garden
?A large variety of flowers and evergreens; Masses of blooms full of both primary colours and pastels. Lots of variety in pots and boxes, and borders have good backing with low frontage.
?A lot of hard work but a very rewarding garden for all who view it.?

The other main winners were:
Large Garden: Mr A L Dodd, 43 Wykeham Park
Facades: Mr and Mrs Conibear, 10 Mitchell Close
COMMERCIAL SECTION:
Pubs & Hotels: The Bird Cage, Industrial: CPM, School Gardens: John Hampden, Hanging Baskets: Brothers Hair Sculptors.

THAME?s Arts Caf

THAME Town Council’s Planning committee are to discuss the county council’s proposals for traffic calming measures to reduce the speed of traffic in parts of the town to 20 mph.
The meeting, which is open to the public to observe, will be held tomorrow (Tuesday, August 9) in the town hall at 6.30pm.
Mr Anthony Kirkwood, from the Environment & Economy, Road Safety Department at OCC, will attend the meeting.

FOLLOWING a committee meeting last night, (Aug 4), Thame United have decided to hold a public meeting, open to all local residents, to discuss the way forward for the football club.
This meeting will be held at 7pm on Wednesday,August 10,at Lord Williams Lower School, Towersey Road Thame. All are welcome to attend.

THAME United Football Club have vowed to play on, despite its landlord foreclosing the lease and bringing to an end use of the Windmill Road site.
All last weekend?s functions, including a planned Rock Night and friendly football match on Saturday, were cancelled as has this Saturday?s friendly and all other future social events and meetings of other local organisations who regularly meet there.
The club?s Vice Chairman, Bernard Wakelin, told ThameNews.Net: ?We had a meeting with Thame Town council and a Committee meeting after that to decide which road we would take. At a further meeting we looked at three offers of ground sharing and since then a fourth offer has come in. On Tuesday night the club secretary had a meeting with Aylesbury United and a decision will be taken at a meeting tonight (Thursday) whether or not we take this option, which is the one that makes most sense because of ease of travelling.
?We have been allowed into the site today to clear out all our kit and other belongings, but, apart from being allowed in next Thursday, we are basically locked out as from today.?

A THAME beat officer with 23 years service has been voted Community Officer of the Year for the Oxfordshire area of Thames Valley Police.

PC Russell Hounslow was nominated by scores of town residents for his dedication and hard work. On hearing the results PC Hounslow, said: “I am shocked. I knew I had been nominated; several people stopped me in Thame town centre and said they had voted for me. But winning the BCU title is a complete surprise and totally unexpected. I am very proud. I am not really one for shouting about what I do, but it’s really nice that there are people in the community who appreciate some of the things I have done.

“I try and do as much foot patrol around the town centre as I possibly can. I go to the senior citizens’ coffee mornings and talk to them about things they can do to stop themselves becoming victims of crime. I speak to residents out shopping and pick up how they feel about anti-social behaviour and information about things that are going on.”

“Now and again people have concerns that they might not necessarily come to a police station to report, but they will talk to an officer if they bump into one and by talking about it we can share information and sometimes put their minds at rest.”

PC Hounslow’s beat includes Thame, Towersey and Moreton. He visits the schools in his area regularly and gets young people in the area involved in community safety initiatives. This year children from the drama group at Lord Williams School have been working with Russell to stage a play about distraction burglary. Senior citizens from the Thame area were invited to the production and the folk band and choir from Burley Hill primary school provided extra entertainment.

His experience with the police cadets led PC Hounslow to join Thames Valley Police at 18-and-a-half years after he left school. He began his service at High Wycombe and then joined Roads Policing at Amersham. He was later transferred to headquarters control room, before moving to Aylesbury control room. Russell then took a job at Thame as a shift officer before taking up his current position of area beat officer. He is also one of the Wildlife crime officers for the Force.

PC Hounslow is working with Thame Chamber of Commerce and Thame Town Council to get CCTV installed in the town. He has also worked closely with crime reduction colleagues, South Oxfordshire District Council and Thame Town Council to tackle reports of anti-social behaviour and drinking in the town centre. Last year Thame was part of a pilot scheme for designated drinking areas. PC Hounslow says this partnership approach to the town centre problems is key to the success they have had in reducing complaints of anti-social behaviour.

The Community Officer of the Year award gives the public a chance to vote for the community officer they think is the best. This year, 64 community officers were nominated in the Thames Valley Police area. The competition was judged by a panel, chaired by Assistant Chief Constable Michael Page, Local Policing. The other judges were Gayle Rossiter, head of Corporate Information, Inspector Michael Carrick, Deputy Chairman of Thames Valley Police Federation, Roy Trustram-Eve, Chairman of Thames Valley Crimestoppers and John Bond-Smith, owner of West Oxfordshire Motor Auctions, who sponsored the competition. The judges were faced with tough decisions because of the volume and quality of the nominations this year.

WANT to know what?s happening about the proposed 20mph speed restriction, parking issues, cycling, traffic congestion, bus routes etc in your town?
Then why not go along to the next meeting of the Thame Traffic Advisory Committee, next Tuesday, July 27, 4 pm at Thame town hall?
Whilst you will not be allowed to participate, unless you have applied to the town clerk to speak by 5pm the day before, you will hear discussions between representatives of the town council, Oxfordshire County Council, South Oxfordshire District Council, the Fire and Rescue Service, Thames Valley Police, Thame Walking and Cycling Campaign, SUSTRANS, the Chamber of Commerce and Lord Williams?s school and see local democracy at work!

THERE were 5,000 fewer victims of crime in the Thames Valley in 2004-05 compared to the previous financial year, according to an annual performance report presented to the Police Authority.

Thames Valley Police say that these statistics confirm that detection rates across all crime types have risen to 26.3 per cent compared to 23 per cent in 2003-04, bringing Thames Valley Police in line with the other seven most similar forces in the country.
This demonstrates, they say, the ongoing success of an action plan launched in June 2004 to improve the detection rate, which focused on enhancing investigative training and the better sharing of good practice.

In a statement today, the force stated that it has far exceeded its 5% reduction targets set for robbery, household burglary and vehicle crime with 13.9 per cent, 18.3 per cent and 12.5 per cent reductions respectively. These, it added, have been achieved through ongoing work including crime reduction, working closely with partner agencies, targeting known offenders and more effective use of forensics in operations including Operation Robbery and Safer Homes.

Between April 2004 and January 2005, the Force achieved a 5.8 per cent reduction in road traffic collisions resulting in death or serious injury ? exceeding its target of 4%.
The statement went on to say: “In the same period, the total number of offenders brought to justice increased by over 23 per cent ? dwarfing the five per cent increase target.”

Deputy Chief Constable, Sara Thornton, said: “I am delighted we are seeing a drop in crime, particularly robbery, burglary and car crime. We will continue to focus our policing activity around crime reduction and detection and, together with our partners, hope to see even more improvements.
“I would like to congratulate all police officers and staff for their hard work that has resulted in a rise in our overall detection rate. This means that more than 5,500 crimes have been detected this financial year compared to last year, an achievement of which we should be proud.
“There is work still to be done around certain detections and we are continuing to review our approach and ensure our housekeeping is right. Although the rises in dwelling burglary and robbery detections are below target, they should be viewed in the context of significant reductions the Force has achieved in these offences between April 2004 and March 2005 ? during this period there were 2659 fewer victims of burglary and 318 fewer robberies compared to the previous year. Unaudited figures since March this year show that this decline is continuing.
“The reduction in serious injury and death on the roads is the result of work by Roads Policing officers and our road safety partners. But there were still 130 people killed and more than 9,500 injured on our roads last year. The causes of this unnecessary waste of life are well known – speed, drunk and drugged driving, failure to wear seat belts, dangerous and careless driving and driving when tired. We will continue to work tirelessly with our partners to reduce this unacceptable loss of life.
“Our call handling continues to improve, with 86 per cent of non-emergency calls answered within 20 seconds between April and June this year and less than two per cent of calls lost. The Force is committed to helping the public and sets extremely high standards in the arena of call handling and in February we started the recruitment process for a further 49 call handlers to help us answer more calls promptly and deal with them efficiently.
“The reduction in sickness levels among police officers and staff is another achievement that is the result of effective management, a robust sickness policy to ensure staff are supported and promptly referred to specialist departments where appropriate.
“The Force faces a number of challenges, particularly in light of recent events, that rely on engagement with our communities to overcome.”

Photo: Sara Thornton, Deputy Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police

IT has been announced that Thame?s proposed Cycle Route Network will not now go ahead.
Oxfordshire County Council?s transport programme for 2006/7, does not include the Thame scheme, which had been planned and consulted on widely since 2002.
OCC?s Senior Transport Planner, Craig Rossington, said in a letter to the Town Clerk: ?The decision to stop work on the Thame Cycle Route Network has not been an easy one. The scheme is one of a number that have been removed from the county council?s programme in response to new objectives and priorities of the Council?s second Local Transport Plan, which will come into effect in July, 2006.?
The scheme apparently does not satisfy new government guidelines designed to prioritise funding to schemes that show the most benefit in the areas of air quality, accessibility, road safety or improving street environment.
Cathy Gaulter-Carter, Chair of Thame Walking And Cycling group (TWAC), which campaigned and was consulted about the plans for the Network, said today: ?I am very disappointed that such a marvellous scheme for Thame has been abandoned through a lack of energy and enthusiasm and that a lot of time has been spent on the detail of the proposal.
?I have written to Boris Johnson asking him to look into the matter and to see if OCC will reconsider.
?If the county council had kept their eye on ball and kept an officer in ownership of the scheme, I am convinced we would have the cycling network by now. This scheme was started before the December 2004 guidelines were issued and should not therefore, I believe, be restrained by them.?

Photo: Cathy Gaulter-Carter, Chair of TWAC