A temporary road closure to apply to a section of Mill Lane, B4445 Thame Road and Station Road, Chinnor whilst road resurfacing and improvement works are carried out.
Temporary Notice(s) are being made to implement the temporary closures and will operate from:
2 – 6 September 2019. Mill Lane
9-13 September 2019 B4445 Thame Road
16-19 September 2019 Station Road
The closure(s) will operate between the hours of 08:00 and 17:00.
Access will be maintained for emergency service vehicles and for those frontages within the closure area, subject to the progress of the works and liaison with the works supervisor.
Further information regarding the works may be obtained by contacting Matthew Hancock of ECL Civils on 01582579812 or email matthew.hancock@eclcivils.co.uk
EARLIER this morning (09/08/19) crews from Thame fire station were called to a vehicle on fire in the Howland Road/Pearce Way area of Thame.
Image courtesy of Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue
On arrival, crews were faced with a well developed car on fire that had spread to a nearby shed as well garden fencing. Crews wearing Breathing Apparatus and using a Hose Reel extinguished the fire.
QUIZ fans from across southern Oxfordshire are expected to converge on Little Wittenham this September and everyone is invited. The quiz night, on September 4, to help raise funds for local environmental charity, Earth Trust and takes place in their beautiful 19th century barn.
By Jonathan Bowen – Original digital photograph, CC BY-SA 3.0 LINK
Teams of up to six people can sign up for what’s shaping up to be an entertaining evening of fun and trivia – it costs just £5 per person and all the proceeds will go to the Earth Trust.
Meet up with your team mates at the bar from 7pm before the quiz starts at 7.30pm. Sue Boyle, the quiz master, will be asking questions on a wide range of subjects throughout the night and the winning and losing teams will receive a small prize each.
The fundraising event is being organised by Cllrs David Bretherton and Margaret Crick, in association with the Trust, to celebrate their support for the sustainable local charity as Chairs of South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Council respectively.
Thame Cllr David Bretherton said: “Quiz evenings are an ideal opportunity to bring your friends and family together. Everyone is invited to enter the quiz and help us raise money for the Earth Trust whilst having a great time.”
Cllr Margaret Crick said: “We’re proud to support the Earth Trust to help them protect their farmland, woodland and wetlands including Radley Lakes – somewhere that local people have enjoyed for many years.”
Laura King is Earth Trust’s Development Manager. She added: “We are delighted to receive this wonderful endorsement recognising the work we do and championing accessible green spaces, including the much loved Wittenham Clumps. The district councils’ support will extend the impact we have in the community and ensure that the people of Oxfordshire have the opportunity to access, learn about and understand nature.”
THAME Town Council has refused permission for a mobile Steam Car Wash, which was to be based in the Upper High Street Car Park, where the kebab van is.
After questioning the man who wanted to run the Steam Car Wash, Mr Mikos, councillors agreed that the Upper High Street Car Park was not an appropriate location for a Steam Car Wash, feeling that it was not practical to move machinery around the car park and between vehicles, and that there was potential for other parked vehicles to be damaged. It was also felt that, Although the operation would generate an income stream for the council, permitting such an operation, would set a precedent for other schemes.
It was suggested there may be more appropriate locations in the town, e.g. the Cattle Market site.
THE permanent mass of waste bins outside Prezzo and Coluco (previously Jack and Alice) in the centre of Thame, may soon be a thing of the past, following lengthy correspondence between Thame Town Council, the two restaurants and Oxfordshire County Council that has gone on for over two years. See LINK
Thame’s Town Clerk, Grahame Hunt, told councillors at last night’s full council meeting, that although OCC have asked him for more evidence of the correspondence he has had between the two establishments, there was some good news. A planning application being submitted by Coluco ‘will deal with their bin issue’.
Christmas lighting
THE town council has agreed a new Christmas lighting scheme for Thame, having retendered for a five year contract which will be in place for 2019/20 festive season, with installation commencing in November. The cost of the lighting scheme is around £19,000 per year, the five-year contract being worth £95,000.
Christmas lights in Thame 2018
Partnership agreements, which are entered into with property owners who agree to have Christmas lights on their property, will need to be renewed for the contract.
Celebrity visitor to Thame sheep market
JEREMY Clarkson paid a surprise visit to Thame’s Sheep market on Friday, where he was spotted being filmed selecting and buying some sheep, for a new TV series Bought a Farm, which will be aired in 2020 on Amazon Prime.
He lives on a small farm near Chipping Norton where, according to Farmers Weekly, he currently grows wheat, barley and oilseed rape.
Environment policy delay
AFTER a debate on the town council’s draft Environmental Policy at its meeting on Tuesday was stopped on a technicality of Standing Orders, the proposal will now pass back to the Policy and Resources Committee, before again coming before the full council at a later date. Read the Draft Environment Policy HERE
THIS year’s Global Car Free Day, a now annual event held in towns and cities all over the world, is to be supported by Thame Town Council, with a Community Pedaling Picnic to be held at Southern Road Recreation ground.
The event is being organised by Cllr Sonja Francis who explained: “The idea is that we hold a decorated bicycle ride for all ages from Montesson Square, through the town, to the Southern Road Rec. culminating there in a parade of the bikes and the Mayor of Thame, Ann Midwinter, judging the best decorated entry. This will be followed by a picnic with everyone bringing their own food and drink (no alcohol please as we want this to be a family event). Those taking part will be very welcome to bring along cricket bats, tennis rackets, rounders balls etc if they wanted to play games.
“Everyone else – excluding those who are disabled, who will be permitted to park their vehicles in the Southern Road car park – can walk, skate board or roller skate because the idea of course, is to leave the car at home!”
To ensure that there is enough support for the idea, please register your interest, including the number of bikes in your group or family, by emailing: Sonja.Francis@thametowncouncil.gov.uk
So, what is Global Car Free Day?
World Car Free Day is an event that is held on 22nd of September each year in towns and cities all over the world. The aim is to encourage people to spend a day without driving their cars for the sake of the environment. As we all know, cars produce compounds that harm our environment and so, we can make a contribution to reducing their impact if we all spend even just one day without using our cars. Various events are organized in different countries in light of the celebration of this event.
TUESDAY, August 20, 2019, will see the official launch of a new Ultrasound service at the Day hospital, at Thame Community Hospital.
Image courtesy of: AECC University College
Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and Thame Hospital league of friends will be hosting the grand opening of this service to an invited group of guests, before opening the service to the public.
The service, which will be run by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, has been created with the support of the League of Friends of Thame Community Hospital and will offer diagnostic services closer to home, ensuring that the local community will have access to the same standard of ultrasound provision available at larger hospitals.
A Spokesperson for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust said: “Patients who live in Thame or are local to Thame will benefit from having their Ultrasound services within the heart of the community. We are very grateful for the League of Friends’ generous donation and support for making this possible.”
Each year, the Trust carries out over 90,000 ultrasound examinations, a procedure that uses high frequency sound waves to create an image of part of the inside of the body, such as the heart, and babies growing in the womb.
A climate activist from Thame was in a group of seven people from across the UK who pleaded not guilty before City of London Magistrates court on Friday, to a charge of obstructing the highway, during a week of Climate change protests in April, that brought traffic in central London to a halt.
Police carrying away protestors from around the iconic XR Pink boat Boat, in Oxford Circus, London
John Francis, 70, a retired Chairmaker, along with his fellow defendants, took part in the peaceful, mass protest organised by Extinction Rebellion, that centred around a pink boat, positioned in the middle of Oxford Circus. It was while sitting on the ground under the pink boat, that Mr Francis was arrested.
During the six day protest, around 1,000 people were arrested.
The trial of this group of seven will take place on November 19, 2019.
THE Thame-Sinaia Friendship Association will be welcoming four residents from Sinaia, Thame’s twin town in Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, who will be representing their town at TAL Festival between October 17-21, 2019.
Sinaia’s representatives at TAL 2019 pictured in front of Sinaia’s International Conference Centre, 20th Century former casino building (Photo: courtesy of Felicia Mirza)
The Association is appealing to Thame’s residents who have a spare room and are able to host one of the guests to come forward. Marius Ciortan, secretary of the Thame-Sinaia twinning group, said: “This will be a great opportunity to meet people from our twin town and find out about their lives and literary hobbies.
“Most of our Thamensians who hosted Sinaians in the past, have been invited to visit Sinaia and they thoroughly enjoyed their stay there. They have been made to feel so welcome! So much – that they returned to Sinaia to see their Romanian friends a few times after their first trip there.”
The group of Sinaians will be giving a talk about the former Queen Marie of Romania, grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. Queen Marie was a great art collector, writer of important memoirs, as well as of poems and stories for children. The talk will take place at Thame Town Hall on Sunday, October 20. Tickets are free and places can be booked via TAL’s website: https://talfestival.org/
All four Sinaia guests are members of ASPE, the socio-cultural association which supports the twinning between Thame and Sinaia and is one of the main liaisons in Sinaia of Thame-Sinaia Friendship Association. Octavia Ghiocel-Floricica, is a Romanian language and literature teacher, Chinese culture expert, and contributor to Sinaia Excelsior newspaper.
Felicia Mirza, an English language and literature teacher, ASPE vice-president, contributor to Sinaia Excelsior newspaper, will be representing Sinaia for the second time at TAL, following her participation in 2017 with ‘Sinaia – Land of the Elites’ event lead by Dan Manea, local architect. Cecilia Francu, is one of ASPE vice-presidents, member of the theatre, literary club and choir of ASPE.
Finally, Marius Bratosin, ASPE President, founding member of Sinaia Photo Club, editor of the Excelsior newspaper, will be looking also to forge links with Thame’s Camera Club.
Anyone interested to be a host should get in touch with Marius via telephone: 01844 353 606 or via the Association’s FB page: www.facebook.com/thamesinaia
AN inquest at Oxford Coroner’s Court on Wednesday heard how 21 year-old Ben Folley from Chinnor, lost his life when the Black Mini Cooper he was driving, veered onto the wrong side of the road on a bend on the B4445 Chinnor Road, and collided with an on-coming car. A woman travelling in the back of the other car with her grandson, also died.
Ben Folley
Brian Evans, the husband of the deceased woman, Deputy Headteacher, Jill Evans from Malvern, described how, from the front seat of their VW Golf where he was a passenger, he became aware of a small car coming towards their vehicle, on the wrong side of the road about 50 yards away, just before impact.
A black box in the Mini recorded Ben driving at a safe 58mph, and the other car was thought to be travelling at a similar speed. Statements from forensic vehicle examiners detailed to the court that the VW had no defects but that in examining the Mini Cooper, investigators found the rear nearside tyre was underinflated prior to the crash.
Forensic collision investigator James Henderson said further examination found that the tyre was “severely under inflated” at the time of the crash, and was likely to have been driven in that condition for “a significant distance”.
Ben’s father, Martyn said in court that his wife, an experienced driver, had driven the car in the days before the crash and had not noticed any issues with the tyre pressure.
An internal indicator designed to make drivers aware of potential flat tyres had not been lit. Mr Folley said that had his son seen such an alert he would have dealt with it immediately or asked a member of his family to do so.
When Ben Folley, who was found to have no alcohol or drugs in his system, went to navigate the bend this would likely have led him to lose control, investigators said.
The cause of death for both crash victims was multiple injuries caused by a road traffic collision.
Reading aloud in the court, Ben’s mother Sarah said the family were ‘totally devastated’ and said her son “wasn’t a speeder, drinker or risk taker. He was a calm gentle boy,” she said.
“He was a bookworm, a quiet lad, he wasn’t a drinker, he loved his family. He was very sensible, and was a worrier. If he thought anything was wrong [with the car] he would have asked for help.”
