Category: More News

SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council has written a letter to Cllr Sue Brown, Leader of Oxford City Council, detailing their concerns over the city’s calculations on new housing needed in light of both councils’ Climate Emergency declarations and opposition to the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway.

The city’s emerging Local Plan has information on their proposed housing numbers based on the presumption that the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway will go ahead – something that the district council says could contradict the city’s recent positions.

Cllrs Sue Cooper, Leader, and Robin Bennett, cabinet member for development and regeneration at South Oxfordshire District Council, have asked the city council to provide more detail on their housing number calculations and assumptions relating to the expressway.

The city’s housing numbers have an impact on South Oxfordshire District Council’s emerging Local Plan because, like other local district councils, they have agreed to plan for extra houses to help support the city’s unmet housing need.

Cllr Robin Bennett said, “We were delighted that the city has joined us in declaring a climate emergency, but we’re concerned that if the expressway goes ahead, it will have a detrimental effect on carbon emissions and widespread ecological impacts.”

Cllr Sue Cooper said, “Making provision for Oxford’s unmet need was one of the reasons our Local Plan housing numbers were so high. Now that people are much more aware of the climate crisis and because the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway is becoming more unpopular locally, we need to be sure of the Oxford City’s housing need figures.”

AFTER sitting so many examinations and tough examinations at that, it was a day of much celebration at Lord Williams’s school, following the release of GCSE results today.

Outstanding levels of achievement have been maintained by students at Lord Williams’s, with 73% of students achieving five or more higher grades 9 – 4, including English and Mathematics. In addition, the school had 130 entries for new courses which do not count in performance tables, and 68% of those entries resulted in level 2 passes or above (GCSE grade 4 equivalent).

Headteacher, David Wybron commented: “It was again a great pleasure to see so many happy faces today and to celebrate another year of excellent results with our students. We are proud, as always, with the range of achievements from our hard working and talented students. I know they are also grateful for the dedication of the teachers and support staff who have helped them secure such impressive results.”

Particularly stellar performances came from many individuals. Worthy of comment this year is the fact that more of LWS students are achieving Grade 9s in subjects, which is the highest level possible. The following students gained at least seven passes at grades 9, 8 and 7 which is a record number for the school:

Zoe Allen, Lara Ashraf, Alex Bartholomew, Charlotte Basnett, Elisabeth Basnett, Josh Beadle, Leo Brake, Joel Britton, Arran Carey, Thomas Carr, Kate Collins, Owen Dobinson, Joshua Dutton, Matthew Evans, Emily Gerrish, Amelia Gilbert, Ben Golding, Gabriel Goodwin, Leo Hayden, Alexandra Hedstrom-Blake, Laura Higgins, Elizabeth Hindmarsh, Amelie Irving, Suzannah Jamison, Rosie Jones, Casey Kingston, Hannah Law, Amy Laws, Edith Lord, Sophie Martin, Charlotte Moss, Jack Mumby, Kate Nicholls, Zac Parry, Sanjit Raman, Amy Roberts, Ella Roberts, Izzy Roberts, Avani Senior, Harry Turner, Izzy Van Dijk, Lizzie Webb, Alex Wilson and Amelia Wylam.

SOURCE: Press release

THE Mayor Thame, Ann Midwinter, and invited guests joined the Thame Hospital League of Friends on Tuesday (21/08) to meet the team behind a new screening service launched in Thame.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust who run the Community Hub at Thame Community Hospital, will run the new Ultrasound diagnosis service to the people of Thame who will now have access to the same standard of ultrasound provision available at larger hospitals, but closer to home.

Before cutting the ribbon to open the door into the Ultasound treatment room, Sarah Taylor, Chair of the Thame Hospital League of Friends, said: “This is an important statement of our confidence in the future of this hospital. It is very exciting, and this is almost the first time in the twenty years that I have been involved that I really do feel now, that what is going on at this hospital is sustainable, is good and bringing lots of people into the hospital. It’s really, really exciting so please do spread the word to everybody that we’ve got some genuinely useful stuff going on here.”

Guests were treated to strawberry and cream scones and two, very special celebration cakes to mark the occassion, after a demonstration of the Ultrasound equipment on a volunteer member of the team, willing to have the inner workings of her (very healthy!) blood vessels in her neck displayed on the screen in public!

A team from Thame, the newest team to enter the competition and rank outsiders, beat off strong competition to reach the final of UK’s Top Backgammon club competition.

Last weekend, 24 backgammon clubs from around the UK competed in York for the honour of being the UK’s top. Some of their opponents ranked in the top 25 players nationally, and have many years of tournament experience, whilst the majority of the Thame team have only been playing for a few years.

Backgammon is one of the world’s truly great games, and can be traced back over 5,000 years. This exciting game is a unique blend of skill, strategy and luck; and no two games are the same. It takes a few minutes to learn the rules and years to become a Master. Thousands of people play in the UK, both socially and competitively, and there are regular events to suit everyone’s skill level.

Backgammon is a friendly and social game. You will find a warm welcome at any UK club, and especially at ThameGammon. If you’d like to learn to play, or have played before and want to meet new people and hone your skills, why not join us?

We meet every second Thursday of the month at the Mercure Thame Lambert hotel, 6:30pm for a 7:00pm start (Wycombe room)

SOURCE: Contributed

THE Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council has written to the Oxfordshire Pension Fund Committee asking them to stop investing in fossil fuel companies.

The Leader, Cllr Sue Cooper, sent the letter to the Committee for the Local Government Pension Scheme for Oxfordshire, which administers pensions for more than 200 employers and thousands of staff – including those of the Vale of White Horse District Council.

‘…inappropriate that the Oxfordshire Pension Fund maintains links with companies whose very purpose is the extraction and sale of carbon intensive energy’

This announcement follows a decision by full council last month to outline the council’s opposition to the investment and also to establish a climate emergency advisory committee.

Cllr Cooper wrote: “Given the challenge of limiting the effects of climate change, we believe that it is inappropriate that the Oxfordshire Pension Fund maintains links with companies whose very purpose is the extraction and sale of carbon intensive energy. Moreover, these investments are not in alignment with either South Oxfordshire’s or the UK’s declaration of a Climate Emergency.”

‘….there are sustainable alternatives’

Cllr Cooper continued: “These non-renewable energy corporations are the primary drivers of the climate crisis that is threatening our planet, with research showing that none of the ten largest publicly listed oil and gas producers are on track to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

“We would argue that there are sustainable alternatives to investing in fossil fuel companies and, therefore, call on the Oxfordshire Pension Fund to explore the reinvestment of its funds into appropriate renewable energy companies.

“Furthermore, in consideration of the lack of action taken by these non-renewable energy corporations to address the issue of climate change and transition towards renewable energy, South Oxfordshire contends that the Fund’s stated defence of its fossil fuel investments – that this gives them influence as shareholders – is untenable. We, therefore, ask you to acknowledge that this approach has failed to bring about the real change required to limit catastrophic global warming.”

The letter can be viewed HERE

NB The UK Government’s own pension fund has taken the first step towards fossil fuel divestment. Parliament’s pension fund trustees are to reconsider the rules of their investments to take account of the risk of climate change.

NOTE – Thame Town Council’s own Draft Environment Policy, which includes an item on the council’s future policy towards fossil fuel investments, is due to be discussed at the next meeting of the Policy and Resources committee in November.

WHAT is fossil fuel divestment? https://www.renewableenergyhub.co.uk/blog/what-is-fossil-fuel-divestment/

AFTER eight years, struggling to get parking restrictions in place along the narrow spur roads off Ludsden Grove in Thame, it looks as though the residents’ pleas may soon be answered.

The roadway at these two locations is so narrow, that anyone parking there restricts the breadth of the highway so much that vehicles passing have to mount the pavement; a particular problem on bin-emptying day.

Many residents have signed a form expressing their support for the implementation of double yellow lines to prevent the opportunistic parking in the two spur roads.

Mr Nigel Champken Woods, a resident of one these spur roads, at the Southern end of Ludsden Grove, told town councillors at a meeting of the the Planning and Environment committee last Tuesday (13/08) that the problem of vehicles passing and parking on the pavement was causing its structure to break up – a potential hazard for pedestrians, particularly those with walking aids.

Cllr Ann Midwinter, who also lives in one of the affected spur roads, said that she feared that an ambulance would be unable to get to the houses in an emergency because of cars parking along there opportunistically.

The committee voted to support the implementation of parking restrictions on the two narrow spur roads at the southern end of Ludsden Grove, although there was some concern about actual enforement.

It was hoped that, now the county council had the required support of the town council, the implementation of the Parking Restriction Order would soon follow.

IT has now been officially announced that a project to move Lord Williams’ Lower School in Towersey Road to the Upper School site in Oxford Road, creating one large school, is no longer on the cards.

Retiring Headteacher, David Wybron, told Thame.Net today: “The strategy moving forward will be to improve the facilities on our two separate sites through all the means open to us.”

‘Too risky’

Mr Wybron explained that the key reason for the change in direction is that the Local Authority (Oxfordshire County Council) no longer supports the project as it feels that there is too great a risk in terms of the investment necessary to support the costs of planning, including a possible bridging loan (so that new buildings at Oxford Road could be finished before moving students from the Lower School). Also, the local authority was anxious about the school’s ability to satisfy Sport England requirements for two rugby pitches.

Frustration over sports pitches

“This latter reason has been a source of frustration for us for many years,” said Mr Wybron, “and despite huge efforts by the school, we have not been able to satisfy their requirement for two rugby pitches to be replaced, even though this would have no effect on the sporting activities of the school.”

Better for commuting staff but the community not behind the scheme

“The single site aspiration was a good opportunity to provide more learning time for our students, to improve access to extra-curricular activities and to end staff commuting. It has been frustrating that local bodies have not been able to help us solve the rugby pitches problem. However, I have felt for some time, that the Thame community was never really behind the scheme and perhaps few people will be disappointed by this decision.”

New site for housing may be needed

The Towersey Road site will no longer be sold for housing as was intended by the Thame Neighbourhood Plan (now in the process of being revised) and reserve sites, also allowed for in the TNP, will now have to be considered for any new development, depending on the numbers of future housing planned for.

Mr Wybron concluded: “As we celebrate another year of excellent A Level results, I can understand why many in the local community do not want such a change, because the school continues to deliver a first class education to the young people of Thame and the surrounding villages.”

THE wait is over and students at Lord Williams’s School in Thame have much to celebrate following the release of results today for A Level and Level 3 courses.

The pass rate was 98% with 43% of passes at A*/A and B grades. The percentage of A* grades has doubled from last year, and students have again secured places at universities of choice, including Oxford and Cambridge.

Retiring Headteacher, David Wybron, commented: “It is a great pleasure to join with students and their families in celebrating so many success stories and at all levels. We know they are going to achieve impressive things in the future. I would also like to thank all the members of staff who did so much to inspire and support them in their studies.”

Head of Sixth Form, Johnny Hammond added: “Congratulations to all our Year 13 students who have worked with such commitment to achieve their grades. We are really proud of their achievements and all their hard work has really paid off. This talented year group, under the leadership of Miss Lowe, contributed an enormous amount to the school and to the local community. They are all in a fantastic position to embark on the next stage of their lives, whether that is at university or in employment.”

The following students achieved A* or A grades in 3 or more subjects: Helena Bernstein, Sam Black, Niamh Bourke, Ben Caiger, Jonathan Dadson, Frances Dixon, Josephine Golds, Emma Gutteridge, Anna Harper, Megan Keen, Harvey Lord, Joshy Lyon, Finlay Murray, Lucy Nicholls, Jasmine O’Reilly, Alfie Richards, Tommy Richards, Joseph Siddy and Max Spokes.

A new council committee in South Oxfordshire that will help tackle the climate emergency is due to meet for the first time in September.

At its July meeting, South Oxfordshire District Council agreed unanimously to establish the specialist committee to advise the council on how it can tackle local issues affected by the climate emergency.

The new Climate Emergency Advisory Committee will be working to ensure the council meets its responsibilities to respond to the climate emergency that the Council declared at a meeting in April 2019.

Committee to meet in public

The committee is a politically balanced group of 12 councillors and will meet in public to advise the council’s Cabinet on matters relating to the climate emergency.

This new committee will make recommendations on how the council can reduce damage to the global and local environment through its policies and practices. It would also aim to work with and advise and influence partner organisations.

Contributing to national and countywide targets

The committee will research ways in which the council can contribute to national and countywide targets on climate and energy issues and identify sources of external funding relating to the climate emergency.

Cllr Sue Cooper, leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “Having declared a Climate Emergency, this was the next step. The committee will try to find ways that council services across South Oxfordshire can contribute to carbon reduction targets and minimise the damage to our environment.”

‘..a united front to face a challenge of this magnitude’

Cllr Sue Roberts, Chair of the Climate Emergency Advisory Committee, said: “I am pleased to be working in a committee that represents all political groups on the council. We need a united front to face a challenge of this magnitude. The committee is supported by dedicated staff and will cut across all areas of the council’s operation and influence. I have started work with officers, sketching out a brief to take to the committee and officers are developing a work programme. I would like to see us working towards targets for a zero-carbon council and a zero-carbon district.”

Your chance to speak

The first meeting has been scheduled for Thursday 19 September at Cornerstone Arts Centre in Didcot, starting at 6pm. The agenda will be published on the council’s website on Wednesday 11 September. Members of the public are welcome to attend and can speak at the meeting about any of the items on the agenda by registering in advance.