Category: More News

THAME Town Council is not happy about a plan to demolish 69 Park Street and erect three houses, fearing danger to other vehicles and pedestrians when exiting into the road, near the school.

It has recommended refusal of the plan, citing Over development, Dangerous access onto the highway and Loss of retail units and employment. The building is currently occupied by J R Car Parts.

Cllr Nichola Dixon told fellow councillors at a meeting of TTC’s Planning and Environment Committee on January 31: “We should be increasing retail at that end of the town, what with all the new houses up there. It seems that the priority is to knock everything down and build what makes the most money for developers. We must make a stand to SODC and tell them that this plan should go to its Planning committee for a decision and not left to officers to decide.”

NB The Highways officer at Oxfordshire County Council has stipulated certain conditions to be placed upon any planning permission. see LINK  The full planning application and associated documents can be read HERE and comments submitted.

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for the public’s help in locating a man missing from Crowell, near Thame.

Mark Robinson, aged 53, from Crowell was last seen on Thursday, January 26, at around 7am in Chinnor Road, Crowell.

He is white, 5ft 10ins, of medium build, and balding grey hair. He was possibly last seen wearing a suit and a grey over coat with a black leather shoulder bag.

Mark is thought to have access to a grey Mazda 3.

PC Matthew French, from Thame Police station, said: “We are increasingly concerned for his welfare and anyone who has seen Mark, a vehicle matching the description, or knows of his whereabouts is asked to call 101.”

UK Power Networks has apologised, after part of Thame experienced it’s fourth power cut in a week, last night (February 7), explaining that it was caused by faulty equipment.

Residents in part of the OX9 3 area of Thame were without power from mid-evening yesterday until 7.45 am this morning. Twice during that period the power came back on again for a time but then went off again.

A spokesperson said: “UK Power Networks would like to apologise to approximately 270 customers in Thame who have experienced a number of power cuts over the last two days.

“These were caused by a series of faults on electrical equipment. However the network has been repaired and the customers were all back on supply by 7.45am today.

“We understand how difficult it is to be without power and apologise again for the inconvenience caused.”

Some electricity customers affected by the power cuts may be entitled to compensation: DETAILS HERE

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following thefts from vehicles in Thame.

Between 10pm on Wednesday (1/2) and 8.30am on Thursday (2/2) unknown offender(s) broke into a white Ford Transit on Henrietta Road and stole power tools.
Between 1pm on Wednesday (1/2) and 10.50 on Thursday (2/2) unknown offender(s) broke into a white Ford Transit on Pearce Way and stole an off-road motorbike and power tools.

Between 11am on Wednesday (1/2) and 9.20am on Thursday (2/2) unknown offender(s) broke into a van on Walker Drive and stole power tools.

The police ask that owners make sure they take items out of their vehicles where possible and do not leave anything on show.

If you have seen any suspicious looking people or vehicles 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 information but wish to remain anonymous, please 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.

THAME butchers, Newitt and Sons came away with a golden haul from the 2017 Butchers Q Guild Smithfield Awards.

M Newitt & Sons Butchers in Thame High Street, won four golds for their Oxfordshire Sausage, Beef Steak Burger, Blue Cheese Steak Burger, and Home Smoked Bacon.

The Newitt family has been in Thame since 1810. In 1965 Michael and Susan Newitt bought the seventeenth century butcher’s shop on the High Street and were joined by Tom in 1990. Tom has been indoctrinated into the business from an early age. Having graduated from Smithfield College as Members of the Institute of Meat, he worked in the food industry for several years.

Michael sadly passed away in 2010, while on holiday, leaving the business to Susan and Tom to continue the passion of quality produce and excellent service. The shop has achieved numerous awards, including Britain’s Best Butcher’s Shop Award.

Open to the Q Guild’s 123 members nationwide, the 2017 Smithfield Awards attracted a record entry of almost 600 individual products, a major increase on the previous year, from 61 butcher businesses from the Scottish Highlands down to the south coast.

A total of 267 gold awards winners emerged this year across the Q Guild’s eight regions – this, too, was a new record high. Judged blind by independent panels of international food and meat industry experts, products were then shortlisted for the national final in each of the ten product categories.

Winners, including best in category diamond awards, were announced at a ceremony in Ironmongers Hall, London, when the awards were presented by acclaimed British food writer and food critic Tom Parker Bowles. (Wed, Feb 1) He told the butchers present: “A town or city without a proper butcher is town without a heart. But all of you here today are masters of meat, heroes of the haunch, legends of the lamb chop and you don’t do this for the prospect of a quick and easy buck. ”

THAME Town Council is to make representation to the coach operators of school buses, asking them not to run their engines when the buses are parked outside Lord Williams’s school.

The decision to contact the coach companies came after a discussion about the Thame Green Living Plan, at a meeting of the town council’s ‘Thame Neighbourhood Plan Continuity Working Group.

Cllr David Bretherton told fellow Councillors, and the Chair of the Green Living Working Group, Charles Boundy, that he had personally been ‘covered in diesel fumes’ recently when he had been passing the school, when several school buses were parked up waiting to collect pupils, with their engines idling.

Other councillors pointed out that the Arriva bus drivers of the 280 service always turned off their engines at the bus stops in the centre of town, thus helping to prevent an unhealthy build up of dangerous fumes.

Clean air will be one chapter of a draft ‘Green Living Plan’ for Thame,  that is expected to be published for public consultation, later in the year. The plan is part of the Thame Neighbourhood Plan which aims ‘To keep Thame as a green and pleasant place to live’. Other chapters will cover such things as Water, Energy and Waste.

STUDENTS at Lord Williams’s School in Thame have been exploring the issues of immigration by debating how they might respond to a (hypothetical) request for the community to accommodate young Syrian refugees in Thame.

During the of-timetable, conference-style debate, the Year 11 students heard from a panel of speakers including a refugee from Iraq, a local charity representative (Convoy2Calais) and Graham Hunt, Thame’s Town Clerk. Graham was impressed by the discussions that took place amongst students: “They offered a wide range of responses and valuable insights to the issues,” he said. “I will remember the event for a long time to come and will endeavour to ensure that the output can be used in a constructive way.”

Nicky Stallwood, Careers Manager at Lord Williams’s School, helped co-ordinate the event on January 17, and commented: “For many students, the experience was powerful and several mentioned how it had changed their views on immigration and asylum seekers. The students were able to empathise with the refugee perspective and were very keen to talk further. For many it was the first time that a global issue had become personalised.”

One Year 11 student spoke for many when he said: “We don’t talk about current issues enough in school. If we want people to get involved and to feed the debate, there has to be more opportunities like this for young people.”

Nicky Stallwood added: “Working with local refugee interest groups provided students with a real insight into the experience of the refugee and the role of support charities.”

John Cormino James from Thame’s Bread and Roses for Refugees, found inspiration from the students’ responses: “What was most wonderful was the grounded passion with which the young people presented their conclusions,” he said. “An energy to nurture and also to give us hope.”

IN response to Wednesday’s report about concerns for the future of Thame Community Hospital, Amelia Williamson, Head of Communications for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust told Thame.Net : “We would like to reassure people that there are no plans to close Thame Hospital. On the contrary, we want to expand and provide more care closer to people’s homes.

“Over the last year we have been working with our partners, staff and the public to discuss and develop a vision for ‘community hubs’ – exploring how we can bring together health, care and the voluntary sector to support people to manage their health and wellbeing.

“These discussions are still ongoing and we are committed to continuing to involve our communities and create hubs that will best meet the needs of local people.”

When pressed further to answer specific questions arising out of Dr Ken Burch’s expressed concerns, i.e. Is it intended to close all the beds at Thame Hospital? Is a pilot scheme to be carried out and what exactly is to be piloted?, Ms Williamson said:

“We are in the process of finalising plans so are not in a position to respond to your specific questions at this time. We will be happy to clarify next steps as soon as we are in a position to do so.”

SUPPORTERS of Thame’s Community Hospital are pleading with the local NHS Trust for more transparency and more public consultation about plans to close beds and run a pilot scheme for alternative uses of the building.

Retired GP, Ken Burch, President of the Hospital’s League of Friends, told Thame.Net: “We have just learned that Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is about to enter into staff consultations on a pilot project for Thame Community Hospital. This pilot consists of closing the few remaining beds in the Hospital, retaining some of the current day care services and possibly trying out new, unspecified services.

“Because it is structured as a pilot study, or trial, the Trust does not believe that it has to put the proposals out to general public consultation. We fear that this could be the first step in the closure of Thame Community Hospital by stealth, and urge the Trust to clarify its proposals and disseminate their details more widely.”

It is common knowledge that the current eight beds at the hospital are being used mainly to relieve ‘bed blocking’ at Stoke Mandeville, Tring, Wycombe, Winslow and other places and not seen as serving the local community.

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust were approached for a response but were unable to comment at short notice. A spokesperson for the Trust however, did say that it had held several engagement sessions with local people about the future of the services it has responsibility for, including proposed Community Hubs.  She asked that attention be drawn to the Trust’s website: LINK HERE