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  • Councillor urges everyone to fill out Thame Housing Needs Survey

    OVER the next few weeks, all households in Thame will receive a questionnaire asking whether anybody within that household has a housing need and it will contain specific questions relating to those needs.

    Thame Town Cllr Bob Austin – Image courtesy of Thame Town Council

    The Thame Town Councillor leading the Thame Community Land Trust project to help the council meet some of the unmet housing needs of local residents, Cllr Bob Austin, has emphasized why everyone affected must fill in the survey.

    Cllr Austin said: “If you have a housing need it is very important that you let us know. As we are all aware, the cost of housing both for sale and rent in Thame is very high. This can make it very difficult for many households to afford local housing costs or meet their specific needs. In particular, many households will not be eligible for social housing but cannot afford market prices either to rent or buy.This can put barriers in the way of keeping families together and consequently cause the loss of vital inter-generational support.

    “THAME Community Land Trust (Thame CLT) has been set up to help meet the housing needs of local residents. The aim is to provide some genuinely affordable housing for people with a strong local connection to the town. It has the support of Thame Town Council.

    “Please fill in the questionnaire if you have a need. It will provide us with vital information to direct our efforts in the right areas as well as give Thame CLT a powerful platform to argue its case with local and national bodies.”

  • Thame High Street to close for resurfacing

    THAME High Street (between Priest End and Bell Lane) will be closed for resurfacing between the hours of 8pm and 6am starting on November 11, 2019, for a maximum of five days. There will be limited access for emergency service vehicles and for frontages within the closed section of road, subject to the progress of the works.

  • Brexit candidate announced for Henley Constituency in the General Election 2019

    KATHARINE Harborne was a Conservative councillor in Richmond until she defected to Nigel Farage’s party in March. She is an environmental scientist with 25 years’ experience as a management consultant in conflict resolution.

  • UP-DATED: Labour candidate announced for General Election 2019

    THE Henley Constituency Labour Party have announced on their facebook page that Zaid Marham will be the Labour Candidate for the Henley constituency in the general election to be held on December 12, 2019.

    Zaid Marham

    Zaid has lived in the Oxfordshire area for over 50 years and has been involved in politics since the 1980s. The facebook post says: “Zaid brings a wealth of experience to the constituency and gives people a real chance of change.”

    Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/zaid4henley/

  • Thame’s MP to stand again

    THAMES MP,  John Howell, announced on his twitter account (now deleted) that he will be standing again in the Henley constituency for the Conservative Party, in the general election on December 12th, 2019.

    No up todate information published about Mr Howell’s candidature to date, but you can read about him on the Oxfordshire Conservative’s website HERE

  • Bra banks, bus pass cheats, defunct phone boxes, dying fish and more Thame news!

    THAME’s annual Service of Remembrance will take place at Thame Memorial Gardens on Sunday, November 10, 2019. The procession, which will include Town Councillors, members of the Royal British Legion, other community groups and a lone piper, will assemble outside the Town Hall at 10.30am ready to proceed to the War Memorial. FULL DETAILS HERE

    The following day, Monday, November 11, will be the 75th anniversary of the D Day landings, and at 11am, the Mayor will lead a minute’s silence outside the town. There will be a lone piper too.

    Housing Needs survey

    LOOK out for an envelope coming through letterboxes throughout the town in the next couple of weeks, containing a Houseing Needs Survey. The survey is being sponsored by the Thame Community Land Trust who are working towards providing lower cost housing for local people unable to purchase property through the regular channels. Vital funding to enable the Trust to carry through the project will only be available if there is a proven need for such properties and it has the support of local people. So, it is vital that everyone with someone living in their house who cannot afford their own home locally, fills in the survey form.

    BT Consultation on phone boxes

    THAME Town Council has been consulting on the potential decommissioning of the public payphones at Churchill Crescent, Thame, and Moreton Road, Moreton. If anyone has any objections to their decommissioning, they can email info@thametowncouncil.gov.uk by December 5, 2019. The traditional red phone box outside the town hall has previously been adopted by the town council and is now a Listed Building!

    Bra Bank at Baban Boutique

    BABAN Boutique at 4 Buttermarket Thame, now has a Bra Bank where bras are recycled to raise money for a charity that supports groundbreaking research to improve detection, treatment and increase survival rates of breast cancers. Throughout November, Baban are giving customers 5% off purchases when they recycle a bra in its bank.

    New Smart cards to tackle school bus passes fraud

    OXFORDSHIRE County Council will soon be rolling out its new ‘Smart Card’ scheme to try to claw back some of the thousands of pounds it loses every year because of freudulent use of scholar passes and other concessionary bus passes. School bus Smart Cards will be introduced first to be followed later by over-60s bus passes and other concessionary passes. OCC has said that the money saved from scholar transport fraud will pay for six new rural buses.

    Crazy Golf in the High Street!

    THE Mayor of Thame, Cllr Ann Midwinter and Cllr DavidBretherton, Chairman of South Oxfordshire District Council, will jointly be hosting a charity event on May 8, 2020, in the town centre, which will includea crazy golf course in the High Street Car Park. It is also hoped that the RAF Air Cadets will bring an aircraft simulator along, and the Army Cadets, an assault course. An innflatable of some form is also being sourced. The event will run throughout the day and offer something for all the family to enjoy.

    VE Day celebrations

    The weekend May 8-10 is coincidentally, when the VE Day, 75th anniversary celebrations will be taking place, and at 3pm on May 8, there will be a Toast by the Mayor of Thame, followed by a ‘Ringing Out For Peace’ at 7pm by the bells of St Mary’s Church, Thame. The celebrations will continue over the weekend with a 1940s Street Dance in the High Street Car Park on the Sunday, May 10, featuring a 16 piece Big Band.

    Also in commemoration of the anniversary, the town council’s maintenance team will plant the raised beds at the Memorial Gardens with bespoke carpet planting, similar to those planted to commemorate the beginning and end of WW1 last year, which received many compliments.

    Dying fish

    FOLLOWING an investigation into the death of several fish in the ponds in the Memorial Gardens, the water has been tested twice showing no issue with the water. Only the roach fish species seem to have been affected. It is believed that overpopulation is probably the cause of the fish deaths but the town council’s maintenance team will continue to monitor the situation.

  • Maiden – Thame Cinema 4 All

    SHOWING this Saturday – November 9, 2019 – MAIDEN
    UK, 2019, 95 minutes, 12 certificate – Director Alex Holmes
    IN order to sail around the world, apparently, “you have to be different from the normal bloke.” Or perhaps you don’t have to be a bloke at all. Now, this might not seem like a revolutionary idea in 2019. But it was in 1989.

    It was then that 24 year old British woman Tracy Edwards, hitherto a deck hand and on-board chef, decided to put together a crew of women to comprehensively challenge the received wisdom that women were just not cut out for this sort of thing. They would enter a serious race. And not just any race: they would take part in the Whitbread Round the World yacht race, a gruelling 33,000 nautical mile sprint from Southampton, around the globe via Uraguay and Australia, and back again, a race that until then no female skipper was permitted to enter. They would compete aboard a vessel appropriately christened The Maiden, a boat that had, to say the least, seen better days.

    Needless to say they were insulted and jeered at, the breathtaking sexism of the media dubbing the Maiden ‘a tin full of tarts,’ and their every set back subject to ridicule. But gradually, Edwards’ crew began to look like real contenders, and the pundits were forced to eat their words, fundamentally changing the sport from thence forward. Holmes’ rousing documentary, a huge success with audiences and critics (scoring a rare 98% ‘fresh’ rating on the review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes) is a thrilling ride that will enthrall even those of us who don’t know our port from our starboard, a crowd pleasing and uplifting yarn about putting sexism in its place, but also a white knuckle account of treacherous and potentially overwhelming combat with an ocean ‘that is always trying to kill you’ – awesome challenges regardless of your gender
    View trailer here.

    Doors open 7.30pm for 8pm start. Thame Players Theatre, Nelson Street, Thame – Film tickets are available on the door or online- Click here

  • The Power Behind the Crone – Celebrating Shakespeare’s Older Women!

    FORGET the crone! Don’t miss this brilliant one-woman show 
    by 5-star review-winning actress Alison Skilbeck!  It’s on at the 
    Players Theatre, Thame, 7.45 pm, Sunday, November 10th! 
     
    Alison plays Prof. Artemis Turret who sets out to prove there are 
    first-class parts for older women in Shakespeare’s plays. Artemis does 
    this by revealing her own amazing theatrical talents, playing seven superb 
    Shakespearean roles for older women during the evening. 

    The Power Behind the Crone opened the 2016 RADA Festival and played the Bloomsbury Festival. Alison’s one-woman shows have received great acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival, in London, and on tour throughout the UK. Other highly successful shows including Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London and Are There More of You? Television appearances include Midsomer Murders, The Beiderbecke Affair, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes.

    Alison is an actor, director, teacher, and trainer who combines a busy and varied career in theatre, on radio, and on television with teaching and directing. She is an Associate Teacher at RADA and has performed and taught Shakespeare at many American universities on tour with Actors from The London Stage, and at European universities on tour for the British Council.

    Tickets £12 – from Spear Travels, Greyhound Walk, Thame, telephone 01844 217228, or online www.thameplayers.co.uk.

  • Green councillors’ open letter to Minister over ‘silencing’ future Local Plan discussions

    FOLLOWING the blocking of South Oxfordshire District Council’s draft Local Plan, by Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing, (more…)

  • Green party candidate for the General Election 2019

    Jo Robb, councillor for Woodcote and Rotherfield Ward, has been selected by the Oxfordshire Green Party to stand for Thame and the Henley constituency in the general election on December 12, 2019.

    Speaking after her selection, Jo said: “When I joined the Green Party, the climate and ecological crisis was nowhere on the news agenda. That has now changed as more and more people wake up to the scale of this global challenge. I am proud to represent the only party that puts the natural environment and human wellbeing at its very heart.

    “Locally, the Government has plans for a South Oxfordshire covered in concrete and blighted by traffic and toxic air. This is music to the ears of the construction industry and big developers but ignores our natural environment and the views of local residents.”

    “It’s time the people of the Henley constituency were represented by an MP who understands their concerns and will represent their interest; someone who will defend local democracy, promote truly sustainable growth and stand against the overdevelopment of our beautiful countryside.

    “I will fight for affordable and sustainable housing, proper funding for our schools and NHS and a Green New Deal – ambitious national investment in public transport and sustainable energy infrastructure.

    “Like the majority of the Henley constituency, I voted to remain in the EU. But since 2016, we have seen our standing MP vote to trigger Article 50 and support the illegal prorogation of Parliament. I stand very firmly for a change of approach: one that respects Henley’s original decision and demands the British people get the final say on the matter. Only a People’s Vote can break the Brexit deadlock.

    “More than ever, we need candidates who stand up for their communities and for nature. Parliament needs MPs who are not beholden to vested interests and worsening climate chaos.

    “A vote for me would be a vote to protect our natural environment and our communities at both the local and national level. We need strong Green voices at all levels of government.”

    Originally from Sydney, Australia, Jo studied law and English at the University of New South Wales. She worked in the litigation department of a major Australian commercial law firm before moving to the UK in 2001 to become a journalist.

    In May, Jo was elected to South Oxfordshire District Council to represent the Woodcote and Rotherfield Ward.  She has campaigned on climate change, fossil fuel divestment, preserving the Chilterns AONB and reforming planning law. She sits on Oxfordshire County Council’s Pension Fund Committee, on South Oxfordshire District Council’s and on the Planning Committee and on the Taxi Licensing Committee.

    Jo lives in the countryside outside Henley with her husband, two sons and three grown up step-children. She enjoys swimming in the Thames with the Henley Open Water Swimming Club,  gardening and walking her whippet. She is training to swim the English Channel next year with the Henley Mermaids, in support of the Henley Music School.