IN future years, the current Thame Cattle Market site could be transformed to include a piazza, affordable flats, a day nursery, specialist shops, and a leisure and arts activity centre.
Or may be an indoor sports complex with tennis court and bowling lanes, or a chainstore such as B & Q or Homebase and an underground carpark.
These were some of the proposals put forward by CMAG, Thame’s Cattle Market Action Group, at its third public meeting in Thame Town Hall last night (June 20).
The Cattle Market site is the last piece of communally owned land in the town and the current occupiers, Thame Farmers Auction Mart, plan to move the livestock market to Thame Showground, leaving the North Street site, located in the heart of the town, ripe for development.
During the year since the last public meeting, CMAG’s Working Group has consulted local organisations including the business sector about what sort of space and facilities the town centre really needs. Using this feedback, the group commissioned local architect Steve Broadway to produce a range of concept plans to get people talking and thinking about what could be achieved on the site. Steve showed outline plans for four very different schemes. His ‘Village’ scheme focused on housing and community facilities, while the ‘Piazza’scheme presented a mix of small business, retail, flats and a leisure and arts centre grouped around a large piazza, part green space and part hard-surfaced with the potential for indoor use.
His ‘Sports’ scheme used part of the site for extended indoor recreation, while what he called, the ‘Multi National’scheme proposed a single large building, housing a medium-sized chainstore with flats above, alongside a leisure centre and increased parking spaces.
“These plans are not meant to be set in stone;” Steve Broadway said. “They show what can physically be accommodated on the site, and the sort of mixed use that SODC, the owners of the site, are keen to develop.”
Responses to the plans came from members of the audience who included residents and representatives of local schools, churches, adult education, community and commercial organisations, as well as councillors from town, district, county and youth councils. Ben Lindsay, from Thame’s Youth Council, welcomed the suggestion of an open piazza and all-age drop-in facilities: “This will be really good for young people during after school hours when little children are going to find big children like me a bit threatening in the recreation ground,” he said. People living near the Cattle Market site were concerned about the height of some of the buildings and the proposed relocation of Thame Town Council’s machine depot and access through to Lee Park.
“These are just the kind of comments we need to hear,” Steve Broadway said.
Angus Lachlan, who works for a large development company, suggested that all the schemes ‘look a bit light on the commercial element’. Deputy Chair of Thame Partnership, Keith Slater, who also chairs Thame and Oxfordshire Chambers of Commerce, added: “Redevelopment of this important site needs to be considered in relation to Thame as a whole.”
A public inquiry into SODC’s Local Plan 2011 recently upheld the District Council’s view that Thame has no need for another supermarket, either on the Cattle Market site or anywhere else in or around Thame. SODC’s planning policy limits potential shopping space on the North Street site to 2000 sq metres of non-food retail. Jake Collinge, a former member of SODC planning department and CMAG’s Deputy Chair, told the meeting:”Development can’t just happen overnight as it used to. All planning authorities are now required by law to consult the community about local developments”. Darren Baker, Chair of CMAG, urged everyone to look at the plans and make comments and suggestions.
All four concept schemes are now on view at Thame Town Hall, with feedback forms for the public to fill in. Forms can also be downloaded from www.thame.net
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