Category: More News

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following a burglary in Thame on Thursday, October 25.Sometime etween 20:30 – 21:30 a property in Robin Gibb Road, Thame, was burgled. Entry was gained via a rear door and a purse containing cash was stolen.

If you have seen any suspicious looking vehicles or people in the area or have any information relating to this message, please call the police via the 24 hour non- emergency telephone number 101.

Alternatively, if you have any information but wish to remain anonymous, please call crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online @ crimestoppers-uk.org. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.

OK. Let’s get the C word out of the way first, then we can move on. We’ve just 36 days to go until Friday, November 30, at 7pm, when Thame’s Christmas Lights are switched on.

Back by popular demand, you’ll be able to feed and pet the reindeer, and sit in an authentic sleigh. The Snow Globe will be back again this year  providing the perfect photo opportunity for you and your family and friends! Other attractions will include Refreshment stalls, freshly-made French crepes from Thame & Montesson Twinning Association, gift stalls and local performance groups – including roaming princesses Rapunzel and Tinkerbell.

Independent shops will be staying open late for early Christmas shopping. There’ll be the tradional lantern parade down the High Street and a ‘Town Trail’ competition to be launched any day now, will give the lucky winner the chance to turn on the Christmas lights with the Mayor of Thame, Cllr Ann Midwinter.

(Last reference to Christmas, I promise) Yes, Christmas is fast approaching and the Cards For Good Causes Christmas card shop will be open in Christchurch again this year, which also, is a good thing. The shop is situated at Christchurch in Upper High Street, Thame, and supports 25 local and national charities. It will be open between November 9 and December 7, Monday – Saturday, 10am to 4pm.

Thame Fair

AFTER a year’s absence, Thame fair came and went recently without too much incident, although there were apparently quite a few complaints about the noise this year. Whilst Thame Town Council and others suggested that this could have been due to the strong winds carrying the sound further, and that we’d forgotten how loud it can be because it hadn’t been here for two years, they have admitted that the Waltzer, as usual, was the main offender – the operator having to be reminded several times througout the evening by roaming noise monitors, to turn it down.

 

The council has agreed, at the suggestion of Cllr Mike Dyer, that it investigates the possibility of insisting a ‘noise limiter’ be fitted to the ride’s sound system.

This year the Waltzer had been replaced by a larger ride, which unfortunately took up more space, damaging several trees in the area. The trees are to be inspected by the Ccounty Council’s Highways officer, as the trees are its responsibility.

On the plus side, £500 was raised by the town council from car parking at Southern Road Recreation ground during the fair – though for some reason, churning up the grass on the field by wheel-spinning was someone’s idea of fun.

Summer fun to look forward to

THAME Town Council is considering a proposal for a Splash Pad at Southern Road Recreation Ground. They’re currently considering the options, including where the funding could come from. If the Splash Pad goes ahead, it would be a free facility open to the public between May and September.

Future bicycle hire schemes

SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council has agreed in principle that all major planning applications should consider options to facilitate cycle hire schemes ‘where appropriate’, and has asked its officers to consider the feasibility of bringing in formal planning policies to achieve this.

The more serious stuff (feel free to peel off now if you’ve had enough – but do come back soon!)

Reducing non-recyclable plastics

THE Leader of SODC, Cllr Jane Murphy, is going to write to the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to urge the Government to intensify pressure on manufacturers to reduce the production of non-recyclable plastic.

The proposal was put forward by District Cllr Caroline Newton, and seconded by Thame’s very own Cllr David Dodds. Whilst supporting the motion a number of councillors at the recent meeting of the District Council, raised several points: problems arose with discarded plastics which impact on the environment and wildlife; non-recyclable plastics are incinerated to provide energy and that there remains some public confusion regarding which plastics are recyclable.

Promoting the river Thames more for tourism

THE District Council is to investigate opportunities to better promote the River Thames for tourism and leisure activities for all residents, especially young people in the district. Councillors have particularly highlighted the many activities and options available for tourism and leisure activities on the River Thames but a number raised concern regarding access from rural areas, slipways access, overgrown vegetation on the banks of the river and the need for more and improved moorings.

‘Unitary’ authority?

JAMES Brokenshire, Secretary of State for Houses, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has responded to the district council’s proposal, made jointly with the Oxfordshire County Council and Vale of White Horse, for a single, unitary authority for Oxfordshire. The response received by SODC has been that ‘a  the three local authorities are all working well together in Oxfordshire at present, he sees no need to proceed with a unitary decision’. (You can read the background to this proposal HERE 

How should housing be allocated in the district?

SOUTH Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils are looking to update their housing allocation policy and have launched a six-week public consultation on the proposed changes. They want to update the policy to reflect the districts’ changing housing needs since the existing policy was introduced five years ago. The new policy will need to reflect recently introduced legislation and regulations, particularly in relation to affordability.

Under the new proposals the councils could also accept applications from people on zero hours contracts, which were not widely available when the current policy was drawn up, and this is designed to be fair to the increasing numbers of working households on zero hours contracts.

The councils say that: “With the new Local Plans there is likely to be more affordable housing available and the new policy would clearly outline how the district councils will manage the housing allocation process.” Everyone has until midnight on November 26, to add their comments. Take the survey HERE

Dates for the diary!

Music In The Park – Sunday, May 5, 2019

Thame Music Festival – Saturday, July 13, 2019

Presentation of the Thame Town Awards – Thursday, March 14, 2019 at Thame Barns Centre

And Finally – Dog fouling!

THAME Town Council continues to get complaints about dog fouling and says that: “Additional information stickers are being deployed,” and that it will be seeing if there is any money in the budget to spend on tackling this nuisance.

THAME is one of the most frequently used locations for the popular TV series Midsomer Murders with over 20 filming locations in the town. Midsomer fans flock to Thame to see where different episodes were filmed. As well as viewing Midsomer venues, visitors can now look forward to enjoying a feast of Midsomer food and drink too.

Two new Midsomer-related products are being launched by The Deli at No. 5, the Thame delicatessen ‘celebrating great British produce with a great British lifestyle’. The Deli at No. 5 specialises in cheeses, pickles, wine, charcuterie and other foods sourced from around the UK. On Monday, the ‘deli’s’ owners, Hannah Jones and Joe Bastin, launched Barnaby Blue Cheese (named after DCI Barnaby in the TV series) and in the new year, they’ll be launching Midsomer Gin.

Other Midsomer foods available in Thame are the popular Barnaby Buns and newly launched Midsomer Chocolate Lollipops from Rumsey’s Chocolaterie. Local businesses are planning other Midsomer products, including Midsomer Ale, for launch in 2019.

Hannah Jones, co-owner of The Deli at No. 5 said: ‘We’re delighted to be adopting the Midsomer theme with our new cheese and gin, both specially produced for us by artisan businesses. We hope they appeal to Midsomer fans in the area as well as visitors from overseas: they’ll make murderously good gifts for anyone who watches Midsomer Murders.”

Becky Reid, Market Town Coordinator at Thame Town Council, added: “Millions watch Midsomer Murders in the UK and worldwide – it’s one of our biggest TV exports. People want to come and visit the beautiful towns and villages of Midsomer, such as Thame. While here, they spend money in our shops, restaurants, pubs, and hotels – which is good for the town and its economy.”

This month also sees the end of a highly successful second season of Midsomer guided Walking Tours of Thame, following their début last year. Tony Long, coordinator for the tour guides, who are all members of Thame Players, said: “Interest is growing and the tours are ever more popular, with nearly twice as many going on the tours this year, compared to last year. The more people coming on the tours, the more funds we can donate from ticket sales to deserving causes including the Mayor’s Charities and Thame Museum.”

Tony continued: “This autumn, we also began a collaborative Midsomer venture with Chinnor & Princes Risborough Railway, combining a Sunday afternoon walking tour of Thame with a steam trip from Chinnor including cream tea while on board. All three dates in September and October sold out, and we’re planning to run these Sunday events once a month between April and October next year.”

 

THE fireworks start early this November with an eclectic line-up at The First Thursday Music Club at The Stables in Thame on Thursday, November 1.

Finishing off the evening will be Get Loose who last appeared in Thame on the main stage at Thame Town Music Festival in July. Lee Castle (lead guitar and vocals), Darren Castle (drums) and Dom Allen (bass) will be kicking up a storm with their exciting brand of blues/rock.

 

John Buckley, who also appeared at TTMF, will also be featuring showing off his beautiful guitar playing and soulful voice. The Kiva Band will also be bringing a mix of powerful songs and beautiful harmonies. They write original material that draws on traditions as diverse as folk, pop, indie-rock and classical music.

The First Thursday Music Club still offers the opportunity for artists to play live in front of a warm and appreciative audience. The club maintains the Open Mic section of the evening where slots will always be available in the first hour on a first come, first served basis with player sign-up by 7.30. The club has a full house PA system with keyboard, bass amp, guitar amp and jazz drum kit (bring breakables!) all set up on stage and ready to go.

Another eclectic evening is guaranteed and, don’t forget, it’s FREE entry!

Get loose: https://www.facebook.com/GetLooseUK/
The Kiva Band: http://www.kivaband.uk/
John Buckley: https://www.facebook.com/john.buckley.73

AS part of the schools ‘Tomb Raiders’ topic, Year Four children at John Hampden School, Thame, had a very fun filled Ancient Egyptian day recently, consisting of four fabulous activities including solving riddles and cracking codes to escape.

The company Clever Cogs Learning were invited into the school to take the children on a puzzling adventure. They entered the three tombs and were asked to solve riddles and crack codes to escape. Encouraged to work well as a team, cooperating and using their listening skills, the children really pulled together to escape.

Looking for clues and avoiding traps

The second activity was with Mr Eyre who took the children on another adventure to find the resting place of Tutankhamun. This involved the children roaming the deserts of the school ground, solving clues along the way and deciphering inscriptions to unlock the tomb. They dodged many booby traps left by the crafty Egyptian engineers, who had set these to foil tomb robbers.

Next came the disgusting yet strangely enjoyable ‘dissecting poo’ activity. This gave the children a chance to gain hands on excavation experience and uncover evidence about the eating and living habits of Ancient Egyptians. Although a mucky task, the children were fascinated by what they found. After this activity they were given the opportunity to taste some Ancient Egyptian delicacies. Many of the children had also followed recipes for their homework and brought in their treats for the other children to try.

Drama and far away places!

The final activity was green screening. The children worked together in small groups to put together an informative piece of drama. They were then filmed acting this out in front of the green screen. A backdrop was later put into the video that appeared to take the children to far and away places.

To finish off their amazing day, the children got to look in Tutankhamun’s tomb (the Anderson Shelter) where they got to see the magnificent sight of Tutankhamun.

Teacher, Mel Schleising, said: “The day was truly magical and the feedback from the children was unbelievable. Thank you to everyone who made the day possible especially @CleverCogsMCR and Mr Eyre for many of the artefacts provided for the day.”

A report by Healthwatch Bucks found that many health leaflets and documents are difficult for people to understand. In fact, 43% of adults find it hard to understand health information. Healthwatch Bucks wanted to find out why.

 

Healthwatch Bucks looked at 15 different health and social care leaflets and documents. Then they tested the documents with the Flesch-Kincaid test, which tests how difficult a document is to read. They found that most of the documents were difficult to read and that only one was written in plain English. The main writing issues were complex sentences, long sentences, and impersonal wording. Also, lots of organisations assumed people knew things that aren’t common knowledge.

The report gives examples on how difficult sentences could be reworded to make them easier to read. For example, a leaflet said: “If you feel your concerns have not been resolved satisfactorily, will (Ed. We’ll?) guide you through [our] complaints process and provide you with information about external independent services who can assist you if you wish to make a formal complaint.” The report suggests: “If we can’t help sort things out, we can tell you how else to complain.”

Plain English

Thalia Jervis, Chief Executive at Healthwatch Bucks, said: “Patients can only get involved if they can understand the information they get. This report will help make that happen.”

Healthwatch Bucks recommends that leaflets aimed at patients should be written in plain English. Also, formal documents that are available to the public should contain a plain English easy-read summary.

Amarjit Kaur, Head of Engagement and Involvement at Bucks Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Adult community healthcare, Outpatient services and Health visitors out of Thame Community Hospital, said: “Making sure all our patients can understand the information we give is so important. We’re thankful for this reminder from Healthwatch Bucks that medical leaflets can often be complicated. The extra effort to ensure they can be read easily is worth it. We will be recommending that staff use the Flesch-Kincaid test to help simplify patient documents and will be offering training to our new patient information panel, which will be set up soon. We will also be developing a new template for our patient leaflets to increase their readability.”

The full report can be found on Healthwatch Bucks website. If you have any feedback for health and social care services, you can get in touch with Healthwatch Bucks at info@healthwatchbucks.co.uk

Did you know?

• 43% of adults (aged 18-65) do not have good enough literacy skills to routinely
  understand health information (Rowlands, et al., In progress)
• around 5 million adults in England wouldn’t pass an English GCSE and have
  literacy levels at or below those expected of an 11-year-old (Okolosie, 2016)
• something like 7 million adults can’t read or understand simple instructions or labels
  such as on medicine bottles (Patient Information Forum, 2016)
•  half the population would be unlikely to understand cancer information brochures
  routinely used in hospital settings (Manning & Dickens, 2016)
• average reading age of the UK population is 9 years old
• The Sun is written for people with a reading age of 8
• The Guardian is written for people with a reading age of 14
• most adults in England are in the 11-14-year-old reading age group (Health Education
  England, 2017).
• NHS Direct (now NHS Choices), which is certified under the NHS England Information
  Standard, has a reading age of 10(Oxford Brookes University, 2016

POLICE are appealing for any witnesses to a burglary at the Post Office in Longwick, which occurred at around 02:00 am on Thursday – yesterday – October 18, 2018.

 

 

If anyone has any dashcam footage from around the time and location, or saw anything suspicious, they are asked to call 101, quoting reference 43180318236.

AS part of the commemoration of the centenary of the Armistice of World War One, there will be a series of special events and projects taking place in Thame.

 

 

As part of the national Beacon Lighting event, a Beacon will be lit at the Thame War Memorial at 7pm on Sunday, November 11, 2018. At 6.55pm the Last Post will be played there just before, followed by a ringing out of peace by the Church Bells. ring out for peace. This will be followed by music through the decades, starting with familiar songs from the First World War.

In partnership with the Thame Remembers project, poppies are to be displayed in the windows of houses in the town from which servicemen left to serve in World War One. The poppies, coloured by primary school children and members of the Scouts and Guides, will carry details of the servicemen. The centre will be coloured black in remembrance or white to denote their safe return home.

As part of the Trees of Remembrance Project, a partnership between Oxfordshire County Council and The Woodlands Trust, a tree sapling is to be planted at Southern Road Recreation Ground on its boundary with Cuttlebrook, and marked with a Commemorative Plaque.

Silhouettes will be placed in the churches of Thame and at the Memorial Gardens (at the Service of Remembrance) as part of the national ‘There but Not There’ project and a life size ‘Tommy’ will be installed at the Memorial Gardens during the National Poppy Appeal as part of the Royal British Legion’s ‘Thank you’ project.

A temporary art installation titled ‘Living Monument’ which will consists of 130 portraits of men currently living in Thame and the surrounding areas, will be placed at the site of the old station platform along the Phoenix Trail, representing each of the individuals who went off to fight in WW1.

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for help to trace a wanted man from Oxfordshire, who is know to have connections in Thame.

Lee Doyle, aged 33, of no fixed abode, is wanted on suspicion of committing three burglaries in west Oxfordshire in April this year. Items including money and jewellery were stolen from properties in Long Harborough, near Witney, West Oxfordshire.

Doyle is known to have connections in Thame and southern Oxfordshire. He is described as a white man, 6ft tall and of slim build, with short dark brown hair and blue eyes.

Investigating Officer Detective Inspector Paul Powell, of Abingdon police station, said: “We are appealing for help in locating Lee Doyle as he is suspected of committing burglaries. We would ask for anyone who believes they have seen him to not approach him and to contact police.”

Anyone with information is asked to call 101 and quote reference 43180127280, 43180127426 or 43180127704.

Reports can be made online at LINK HERE –  or you can call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

YET again, Thame Town Council has been defending the Thame Neighbour Plan against developers seemingly trying to persuade the council to support new developments in the town that are contrary to the plan’s policies.

 

Angle Property’s Executive Director, James Good, is the latest developer representative to be told that his company’s proposals, for 129 houses (none ‘affordable’), a 68-bed care home and 1511 sqm of offices, to be build on the ex DAF site at Kingsmead Business Park, cannot be supported by Thame Town Council.

Despite suggesgting that the proposals would bring over 170 jobs to the town and provide ‘a viable future’ for the site, which he said, had shown no market demand, councillors pointed out that this site is protected as employment land in the Neighbourhood Plan and that Thame has already met its obligation to the Local Plan, in housing numbers. Also, it is pointed out in a report by the council’s Neighbourhood Plan Continuity Officer, Grahame Markland that the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group have again objected to a care home on this site as the new facility would put pressure on an already stretched primary care service.

Cllr Mike Dyer said that any increase in the housing number requirment that may come up in the future, will have to be consider at that time. Cllr Bob Austin added: “The primacy and integrity of the Thame Neighbourhood Plan must be maintained.”

You can read Grahame Markland’s full report and recommendation to the council on Thame Town Council’s website HERE (scroll down to just below item 5 on the agenda)

NB A previous planning application for this site by Tesco for a foodstore, petrol filling station and offices was refused permission in July 2016. SEE LINK