A Bledlow Household Recycling Centre (HRC) Action Group has been set up led by County Councillors Bill Bendyshe-Brown and Carl Etholen with the aim of reopening the HRC as a commercial enterprise which was closed by Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) on March 31, 2019, despite huge opposition from local residents.
Responding to this enormous opposition within their local communities, leaders from 10 local Town and Parish Councils, including Thame, have also joined the Action Group.
The HRC was used by 95,000 members of the public every year from across the region including some 30% of the users coming from Oxfordshire. These users now have to travel to either High Wycombe, Aylesbury, Aston Clinton, Oxford or Watlington resulting in an estimated additional 4,100 tons of CO2 and 3100 kilos of NOx + PMs being emitted into the atmosphere based on a normal small sized car.
The Action Group has set up a Community Interest Company (CIC) and a Just Giving account and are asking members of the public to subscribe to their fund to enable a planning application to be made to BCC to enable the HRC’s reopening. Bill Bendyshe-Brown said: “The petition raised to object to the closure received nearly 4,500 signatures and we are hoping that members of the public will respond in large numbers to support our funding drive. We require a minimum of £10,000 for the planning application but significantly more to restore the site to enable it to be used again.”
Thame’s Mayor, Ann Midwinter, said: “We believe passionately that this is a worthwhile cause and our Council has contributed £500 towards the planning application. Our residents and others around our local area used Bledlow HRC regularly and they feel strongly that they want it to reopen.” The Mayor of Princes Risborough Town Council, Matt Walsh, also added his support: “With nearly 2,500 homes to be built in Princes Risborough over the coming years, let alone the big developments in Chinnor, Longwick and over 1,000 homes to be built on Haddenham airfield, reopening the Bledlow HRC is essential to meet this increased local demand. We fully support this funding drive and initiative.”
The Just Giving Page by the Action Group is now open for donations. It was officially launched on Thursday, July 25, outside the closed gates of the Bledlow HRC.
A revised road closure notice (back in April it was stated dates would be July 23-26, 2019, for Croft Road, Thame. The revised dates are now August 30 – September 1, 2019.
COUNCILLORS in South Oxfordshire have agreed to take a more time to consider options for the district’s Local Plan following a vote at a Council meeting last week.
Councillors say they want to find ‘effective and suitable ways’ to ensure the plan takes into consideration feedback from local residents, who have raised concerns about the emerging plan’s approach to providing land for housing in the district.
South Oxfordshire District Council submitted its new Local Plan to the government in March ready for it to be examined, but following the local elections in May, the council’s new administration is keen to ensure the district has a plan that addresses local concerns.
SODC has also formally declared a Climate Emergency and so at the meeting in Crowmarsh on July 18, councillors also expressed their wish to use the Local Plan process to help address the issue.
Cllr Sue Cooper, Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “We’re all very keen to make sure that we have a Local Plan that protects the best interests of South Oxfordshire and our residents. It’s sensible to take time to make sure we investigate fully of the implications desired changes might have, particularly if they have an impact on quality of life in the district.”
Following the councillors’ vote, council officers will be working with partners and the government to discuss issues related to the Local Plan including implementing Oxfordshire County Council’s successful Housing Infrastructure Funding bid.
Councillors approved a recommendation from the council’s Cabinet and agreed to:
(1) express its determination to maintain its housing land supply and avoid speculative development;
(2) express its continued support for the Housing and Infrastructure Fund (HIF) funding and infrastructure projects that could be delivered by it;
(3) ask officers to explore with Oxfordshire County Council, Homes England and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government options for protecting the HIF funding whilst enabling the council to address concerns about the current emerging Local Plan 2034 including (but not limited to) climate change issues, Oxford City’s unmet housing need, and to report back to Cabinet and Council;
(4) recognising that the Climate Change Emergency is all too real and is recognised to be of key and statutory importance under the Climate Change Act 2008 and the associated objective of “zero carbon by 2050”, express its wish to do all that it can to respond through the Local Plan process;
(5) agree that as soon as practicable, alongside satisfactory progress being made on resolving issues in the emerging Local Plan, work on a subsequent Local Plan shall commence, strengthening climate change considerations.
EXTREME HOT WEATHER WARNING – AS it is looking very likely that the temperature could reach 39°C somewhere in southern and eastern England today – the hottest temperature ever recorded in the UK is 38.5°C – the public is being advised to take precautions.
Tips to survive the heat:
* Drink water, even if you don’t feel thirsty. Take a bottle with you always. * Hot cars kill. Never leave kids, older people or pets in cars. The temperature inside a parked car can double within minutes. * Keep cool. Seek out air-conditioned buildings, draw your blinds, use a fan, take cool showers and dress in light and loose clothing made from natural fabrics. * Plan ahead. Schedule activities in the coolest part of the day and avoid exercising in the heat. If you must go out, * wear a hat and sunscreen and take a bottle of water with you. * Check in on others. Look after those most at risk in the heat – your neighbour living alone, the elderly, the young, people with a medical condition and don’t forget your pets * Be aware of the dangers of playing near or swimming in rivers, lakes and reservoirs
The police locally have particularly warned of the dangers of jumping into the old quarry lakes at Chinnor, which are surrounded by crumbling cliffs and the very cold water is shallow in places, concealing hidden objects. Traces of chemicals in the water from the previous operations at the quarry, have caused skin irriatations in some people. Apart from anything else, the site is now privately owned and anyone caught there could be charged with trespass.
Two in court for causing suffering to a fox
ISSUES surrounding identification and a planned independent expert report which would dispute ‘whether the necessary suffering would have been caused in the circumstances described’ were raised in court where two Kimblewick huntsmen faced charges of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
Ian James Kirby Parkinson, 64, of Lower Road, Haddenham, and Mark Anthony Vincent, 53, of Kimblewick, near Aylesbury, President of the Kimblewick Hunt, face a trial on October 30.
The charges relate to an incident near Moreton Field Farm, in Moreton, near Thame, on January 1, 2019. Members of the Hunt Saboteurs Association had released footage claiming to show an incident on the same date where a fox was forced out of an artificial earth using drain rods and then thrown towards hunt hounds.
Both defendants were given bail.
Road Closed following two incidents now re-opened
THE Aylesbury Road, the A418 at Scotsgrove, was closed for a while yesterday, following a road collision and a broken-down combine harvester. The 280/X8 bus route was affected by the temporary closure.
Sponsors needed for Thame’s Christmas Lights Switch-On
THAME Town Council is looking for local businesses to sponsor this year’s Christmas Lights Switch-On, planned this year for Friday, December 6. Lucy Electric have already agreed to sponsor the lights themselves.
MEMBERS of Thame Town Council’s Planning and Environment Committee have turned down a proposal for a mobile Steam Car Wash service based in the Upper High Street park.
Councillors felt that the space the operation would take up in a busy car park, the dirt and pollution it would cause, meant that the business was inappropriate for the intended location. It was suggessted that the Cattle Market car park might be a better location for the operation.
BETWEEN 5pm – 10pm on Saturday, July 20, tools were stolen from a black Ford Transit on Lincoln Road, Thame. If you have seen any suspicious looking people or vehicles in thid area or have any information relating to this incident, call the Police via the 24 hour non-emergency telephone number 101.
Alternatively, if you have information but wish to remain anonymous, you can call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online by visiting www.crimestoppers-uk.org. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.
Celebrate 75 years of Theatre in Thame
A REMINDER that Thame Players are celebrating 75 Years of entertaining audiences with their new review show, Landmarks, which they will be performing on Friday, July 26, and Sunday, July 28, at the Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame.
Thame Players can trace their origins back to 1944, when they put on one of Thame’s fundraising events, held a few weeks after D-Day, to welcome returning soldiers home. Since then, this well-loved amateur group has gone from strength to strength, from performing only once or twice a year to audiences of just a few hundred, to today’s thriving theatre which has some 8000 people coming through the doors to see Thame Players’ own productions or visiting live shows and cinema screenings. See website for more information and to book tickets: https://www.thameplayers.co.uk/Events/75-Years-Of-Thame-Players—Landmarks
Living with Alzheimer’s disease, with humour, love and hope
AS part of this year’s TAL Festival in Thame, meet Steph Booth, the wife of actor, Tony Booth, the father of Cherie Blair, and hear her remarkably moving and personal story of coping with a partner suffering from Alzheimers.
Join Steph on Sunday, October 20, at 11am, in the Players Theatre, as she recounts their experience, adding humour, love and hope to her practical advice for partners and children. She helps us see that for all its difficulties, there is still a life to live and a person to care for.
Get yourself a Functional Fitness MOT!
TO be held at Thame Town Hall, on Friday October 4, 2019, between 1pm and 4pm, the Functional Fitness MOT is a programme developed by the partnership between the Glasgow Caledonian University, the British Heart Foundation National Centre for Physical Activity and Later Life Training.
A Physiotherapist, Occupational Therapist, Fitness Instructor or Postural Stability Instructor will take the participants through seven tests that will give them an indication of their exercise performance. Each test comes with a set of ‘normal values’ for people of different ages (From 60yrs to 90yrs) and this will give participants an idea of whether they are doing well compared to their peers, or whether they could benefit from being more active.
Participants are recommended to book an appointment – they can just turn up but may risk being turned away. Appointments can be made from September 23, 2019, with Karen Copping on: 07842 684760. There will be a list available of local activity opportunities the participants may like to join in with, and some online websites that will give them some more information. Also on hand will be representatives from the following organisations to give information and advice, mainly on physical activity opportunities available in the Thame area; AGE UK Oxford including the Community Information Network and Generation Games and Thame Leisure Centre including GO ACTIVE.
THE organisation, Need Not Greed Oxfordshire has stated that the Local Industrial Strategy (LIS), signed off by Government today, has been prepared by an ‘unaccountable quango based on developers’ aspirations’.
In a statement today, NNGO, stated: “The strategy will influence the scale of growth that the Oxfordshire Plan 2050 will deliver and is likely to generate an uplift in future housing targets. It sets a target of 108,000 net new jobs in the county by 2040 which, given high existing employment levels, would mean a substantial increase in Oxfordshire’s population.”
NNGO, a coalition of 41 groups from across the county, further stated that it welcomes and supports the need to plan appropriately for a strong Oxfordshire economy but that it is concerned that the Oxfordshire LIS has not been subject to democratic process or environmental assessment.
NNGO member Peter Jay, Chairman of ROAR (Rural Oxfordshire Action Rally), said: “Many local councillors don’t know about the LIS, or understand its implications, as it hasn’t gone through local authorities. The public certainly haven’t had a say and there’s been no thought given to the environmental impacts. The future of the county is being stitched up behind closed doors.”
The Oxfordshire Growth Board has sought to downplay the LIS’s impact, saying it is just ‘one strategy of many that will influence to some extent the emerging Oxfordshire Plan’. However, the National Planning Policy Framework says that planning policies should have regard to Local Industrial Strategies.
NNGO states that the Growth Board has already commissioned a company called Iceni to carry out an Assessment of Housing Need – effectively a new Oxfordshire Strategic Housing Market Assessment (SHMA), and that the brief for Iceni states more than once that the LIS will influence the scale of growth that the Oxfordshire Plan will have to deliver. It is feared that that an LIS can justify an uplift to housing targets for the county ‘beyond Objectively Assessed Need by the standard methodology’ (see 2 below).
NNGO is concerned that local Councillors are unaware of the impact of the Oxfordshire LIS and would encourage them to question and challenge OxLEP’s proposals, including asking Council leaders (who sit on the OxLEP Board) why they have signed this off without authorisation from elected members.
Local organisations and individuals who would like to know more can visit the Need not Greed Oxon website: www.neednotgreedoxon.org.uk or can email info@neednotgreedoxon.org.uk
‘NNGO is a campaign dedicated to protecting Oxfordshire’s rural environment, whilst recognising the development and infrastructure needs of the counties’ residents’.
‘We believe there is an alternative vision for the future of Oxfordshire, one that is not based on forced economic growth but which focuses on meeting local people’s real needs. www.neednotgreedoxon.org.uk
For a complete list of NNGO members visit the website.
THAME Sports Club, which includes the Tennis Club and the Bowls Club, is to receive £88,280 from South Oxfordshire District Council to help completely rebuild its much-used clubhouse into a modern and efficient facility for the members to enjoy.
The existing Thame Sports Club’s clubhouse
The money comes from community contributions made by housing developers relating to new homes they’ve built nearby. This contribution is on top of an up to £250,000 community grant the council has already allocated towards the project.
The design for the new Club house for thame Sports Club
The plan is to demolish the old clubhouse, built in the 1920s, and build a new community building, that will have modern changing facilities, clubroom, kitchen and bar. The whole building project will cost around £500,000 and with the rest of the funds already raised coming from other grants schemes, such as Sports England and the clubs’ own fundraising, the plans can go ahead.
Robin Bennett, Cabinet Member for Development and Regeneration at South Oxfordshire District Council, said: “It is absolutely vital that housing developers contribute to the infrastructure serving the communities near their developments. We are delighted that Thame Sports Club has been awarded this cash to go towards their fantastic new clubhouse, which will be enjoyed by existing and new residents alike.”
Peter Bozier from Thame Sports Club added: “We are thrilled and grateful to receive this money towards our much-needed clubhouse. The new building will provide improved and more modern facilities for both of our playing clubs and also the community groups who regularly use our clubhouse.”
Planning permissions have already been approved and Thame Sports Club hope to start their building project in late August this year.
LORD Williams’s School Headteacher, David Wybron, has retired after 28 years at the Thame school.
David joined the teaching staff at Lord Williams’s School in 1991 as Head of Humanities and teacher of History. He progressed to become Deputy Headteacher and then Headteacher from 2005.
Under David’s leadership, the school proudly achieved an outstanding Ofsted rating in 2011. Since then, he has continued to strive tirelessly for improvements and this has resulted in consistently excellent GCSE results, including the school’s best ever results in recent years.
A statement from the school today reads: “After 28 years of dedicated service, David leaves with the school in an excellent position and one that the Governors believe is even better than 2011 when the current Ofsted outstanding rating was awarded.
“Throughout his headship, David has also considered the bigger picture and was instrumental in the school converting to Academy status in 2012. He has also been key to the development of the Thame Partnership of Schools, which is now an empowered and effective group driving improvement in education provision across the full age range.
“Irrespective of impact on league tables, David has always made decisions with the best interests of individual students and their progress as key considerations.”
Mike Underwood, Chair of the Governors added: “David has been an outstanding Headteacher and the Governors publicly thank him for his tireless work. They wish him all the very best for the future and for an enjoyable retirement.
“David will be replaced in September by Jon Ryder who is currently one of the two Deputy Headteachers at the school. The Governors welcome Jon to his new role and are looking forward to working with him as he leads Lord Williams’s School into the future.”
David Wybron himself commented: “I find it hard to believe that I have been at the school for 28 years. I can honestly say that I have loved being a part of Lord Williams’s School over this time. It has been a great privilege to be Headteacher over the last 14 years, to work and spend time with so many wonderful staff and students and to represent this splendid school in the community it serves.”
[Editor] David Wybron has more recently publicly campaigned for more funding for schools including taking John Howell MP to task in open letters for misrepresenting government funding figures for pupils. See LINKhttps://www.thame.net/archives/42430
AROUND 60 people took part in a Clean Air Forum on Wednesday, July 12, hosted by the Thame Green Living Group (GLP), as a follow up to the recent public consultation on a Green Living Plan for the town.
Clean Air forum, Thame
“We are taking as read that there is a Climate Emergency,” said the Chair, Charles Boundy, as he explained that the group was now thinking about practical ideas to move forward, looking at the three topics with most engagement from the consultation, clean air, clean energy and Electric vehicles.
Fellow group member, John Scott explained that there may need to be trade offs between quick wins and those which would take longer. All these topics, he said, were being looked at by OCC, SODC, the government and governments all over the world and the GLP is tapping into what is going on in these places and staying in step.
Practical steps
John told the audience that among the practical ideas being considered by the Green Living group are promoting cleaner vehicles; support for a ‘no idling’ campaign; installing electric vehicle charging points – thinking about where they should go – car parks? Charging point hubs? Where there is no off street parking?; holding an EV test drive day; a community-funded clean energy generation scheme – a solar array? a wind farm? Such things are happening elsewhere across Oxfordshire, he said.
Charles Boundy then spoke about clean air, reminding the audience that it is 13 years since Al Gore’s film, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and how David Attenborough’s documentary, Blue Planet, had been a turning point for our awareness of plastic pollution of the seas, and the effects of rising sea temperatures.
He used the analogy of our ‘sea’ being the air we breath, and it now being full of debris in the same way, but the difference being, we can’t see it!
“What goes up contributes to climate change,” he said. “Burning fossil fuels for instance contributes to melting ice-caps, etc. And what comes down causes air pollution, and its proven adverse effects on health. It’s like breathing asbestos over a period of time.”
‘We are damaging the most vulnerable’
Charles explained that, although here in Thame there may not appear to be such a big problem of air pollution as in other places, there is no safe level. Queueing traffic, vehicles idling outside banks, shops, take-aways etc are a problem. “The worst place of all,” he said, “is at the school gates where we are damaging the most vulnerable. Some people don’t realise that that the pollution inside an idling car is four times that of the air outside.” Walking and cycling is much safer, he said.
No Idling sign outside a school in New York (image courtesey of Alan Zale for The New York Times)
Will it get worse?
With more houses, more cars and more journeys, if we don’t act, the situation will only get worse, suggested Charles.
A Clean Air Week is being planned in Thame, in October, for which the Green Living Group would like more volunteers to help.
Charles then questioned why there were not more people there at the forum, an indication, he said, that the Green Living Group needed to do more about communication. He questioned whether there were some people who did not want to change, didn’t believe the evidence or expected others to take action. “It is not just down to the council,” he said. “It is not just their job to do want we want.” It was up to the affluent areas of the world to take the lead, he suggested, and show the way.
Why should we change?
If we don’t, suggested Charles, “…we’ll become victims through our own inertia – there is no going back.”
Some of the practical things people could do, he suggested, were to support SODC’s ‘Turn it off’ campaign, and think to ourselves, ‘Do we need to use the car? Can I walk or cycle? Another suggestion was to consider making your second car an EV.
“We need to change the ‘THEY’ need to make changes, to ‘WE’ and the ‘WE’ to ‘I’” he concluded.
Bigger Choices
Charles suggested that we will all have to change our priorities. “When did we surrender our roads to cars?” he asked, and suggested that it was time to change our priorities, adding: “Thame is an active and attractive town and we must balance accessibility and vibrancy with health. We all need to consume less, but perhaps most importantly, we need to start by slowing down our pace of life so that we can make more time to travel, and to live more sustainably.”
Questions from the floor
A resident asked about people’s experience of asking drivers to turn off their ignition when they were sitting in their cars with the engine idling. Some nervousness was admitted to, but there were examples of ways of approaching such drivers, with a gentle, polite message and in one case, by children offering drivers a chocolate to turn off their engine!
Another resident pointed out that to be more effective ‘a holistic approach’ needed to be taken to planning change, because, for instance, older people and the disabled may not be able to walk or cycle into town.
‘Climate anxiety’ and the need to come together
Many young people are suffering from ‘Climate Anxiety’ said one resident, which suggested, she thought, that there was a need for everyone to come together and create a feeling of community and togetherness to take actions for the benefit of all.
Following the presentations and questions, members of the audience were invited to stick blue stickers on various charts focusing on clean air, clean energy and Electric vehicles, to indicate their considered level of feasibility and neccessity against suggested actions. Afterwards, a quick assessment was made of the results by members of the Green Living Group, Mark Stockley, Phil Evans and Lisa, indicating the following:
* Just how much the people in Thame really do care about clean air * How popular the idea of micro-transport, i.e. an electric hopper bus, is * The popularity of experimenting with pedestrianisation of the town centre * Need to help people who are older and/or cash-strapped, to engage * That there was some way to go to establish the effectiveness of electric vehicles
Solar energy
It was pointed out that there is a large solar array just outside Thame, visible from the train. John Scott said that he was aware that it supplies enough electricity to power a town the size of Thame. He added that contact was being made with the owner to share real-time data from the array. He added that although the government had stopped the advantageous ‘feed in’ tarifs, it was his understanding that it had promised introducing ‘an export tariff’ by the end of the year. John added that there are already incentives for businesses to use green energy, and that free ‘energy audits’ are available for businesses to help them to work out how much energy they are using and how they could reduce it. A town councillor who was present said that he would take this information to the business community of Thame.
There was some discussion about solar panels on the roofs of houses, and the concern some people have about the ascetics of the panels. It was pointed out that there are now black roofs with black solar panels available that are easier on the eye, and ‘solar slates’ that are now available.
A questioner asked if the new houses in Thame had solar panels or heat pumps. The answer was ‘No’.
The results of the blue sticker exercise and the points raised by the forum will be analysed by the group before it puts forward further actions.
After the meeting, Charles Boundy said: “The evening was good progress to gathering views and choosing options and we’ll be coming back to people shortly on the main headings.”
HAVING decided to re-appaise the current emerging Local Plan 2034, the new Cabinet at South Oxfordshire District Council, is to recommend to full Council to make some significant changes to the plan, in particular, to ‘strengthen climate change considerations’.
The current draft plan was ready for its final stage, going to a government Inspector for approval, just before the local elections in May. But the new administration, now led by a coalition of mainly Greens and Liberal Democratics, wanted to take a fresh look at it in the light of the council having declared a Climate Emergency, and possible changes in Oxford City’s Local Plan regarding its housing numbers, and other concerns.
At it’s meeting last night, July 11, Cabinet agreed the following recommendation to full Council, members of which will consider it at their next meeting on Thursday, July 18, 2019:
“That the Council: (1) express its determination to maintain its housing land supply and avoid speculative housing development;
(2) express its continued support for the Housing and Infrastructure Fund (HIF) funding and the proposed infrastructure projects that will be delivered by it;
(3) ask officers to explore with Oxfordshire County Council, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and Homes England options for protecting the HIF funding whilst enabling the council to address concerns about the current emerging Local Plan 2034 including (but not limited to) climate change issues and Oxford City’s unmet housing need, and to report back to Cabinet and Council;
(4) recognising that the Climate Change Emergency is all too real and is recognised to be of key and statutory importance under the Climate Change Act 2008 and the associated objective of “zero carbon by 2050”, express its wish to do all that it can to respond through the Local Plan process;
(5) agree that as soon as practicable, alongside satisfactory progress being made on resolving issues in the emerging Local Plan, work on a subsequent Local Plan shall commence, strengthening climate change considerations.”
Any new plan will be subject to a public consultation before it is re-submitted for inspection.
** To read the background information on the current draft Local Plan 2034, and the options that were/are open to district councillors, visit the following link: http://democratic.southoxon.gov.uk/documents/s16696/Report.pdf (Note: Councillors opted to recommend Option 3 at a recent meeting of the Scrutiny Committee)
