Dear Editor – The incidents associated with the presence of travellers on the show ground are replicating those experienced by others elsewhere in the country and reported on Google web sites. The claim by the Thame Agricultural Association that a ‘good faith’ booking was taken after background checks had been carried out begs the question; why didn’t they seek the opinion of the authority where the Darlington group held their last gathering?
Having become aware of the calamity that they had brought upon themselves and upon the neighbourhood, what measures did members of the TAA take in order to safeguard their assets? I have a grandstand view of activities around the entrance to the site and I certainly haven’t seen evidence of containment there.
The individuals purporting to be traffic controllers appear to have been drawn from amongst the travellers. They initiated one or two spectacular traffic jams and made no effort to curtail the dirt track-like activities of numerous drivers as they snaked recklessly up and down the driveway at high speed, generating clouds of dust that drifted into the houses bordering the site. The driveway quickly became severely rutted and as a result of heavy rainfall, became a channel of mud carried down to the B4012.
I witnessed a 4×4 being driven out of the driveway straight across the two lanes of the B4012 and up on to the grass verge on the opposite side, before snaking at speed along the grass to the entrance to Cromwell Avenue then turning sharply into the traffic flow and back into the Show Ground driveway. This reckless and quite pointless action drew no comment from the ‘traffic controllers’. The grass verge which is used by walkers and joggers and which has always been carefully tended by council groundsme, was taken over by the travellers for parking cars and lorries and there was even a woman attempting to sell clothing to the travellers from the boot of her car. The area gradually became devastated.
There was a constant flow of vehicles on to and off the site from six in the morning until well after midnight when the noise and the blazing headlights were a great deterrent to sleep.
Each morning we were treated to a display of litter picking around the entrance to the driveway, though in truth there is little in evidence there. However there was no attempt to extend the search around the corner into Cromwell Avenue which is the route followed into town by many pedestrians from the site. The entire exercise seemed hypocritical when one considers the lack of concern shown for the local environment as a whole by the visitors to the site.
No doubt it will cost the TAA a considerable sum of money to restore the Show Ground to a satisfactory state for the {Towersey} festival in a couple of weeks time. My concern is that the cost of restoring the land adjoining the site should not be borne by the local residents. The damage done can be attributed to people who came to the site with the blessing of the TAA and surely it must, therefore, be the responsibility of the TAA to pay to put it right.
I wish to assure the TAA that my comments contain no rumours or Chinese whispers; they relate to things that I have witnessed myself. Much of the evidence was there for all to see.
Harry Burden
Thame
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