Category: Missed a ThameNews story?

THAME’s Mayor, Nichola Dixon, made a promise she made that if ever she became Mayor she would jump out of a plane. Well, last Saturday, August 20, she did just that, leaping out of an aircraft, piggyback style, to raise money for her two chosen charities, the  Thame & District Day Centre and the Thame to Thame Earthquake Fund.

After just one day’s training and taking to the skies with experts from the London Parachute School,  she fulfilled her pledge and raised over £1400.

“I can honestly say it was the best thing I have ever done; I would do it again tomorrow if I could,” said an elated Nichola. “I had to keep telling myself I was more excited than nervous and having my family, friends and some fellow Councillors supporting me really helped to keep me calm. I’d like to say a big thank you to the guys from the LPS; they were so relaxed and matter of fact – they must be as they do this every day – that they made it a really enjoyable experience.”

Nichola will continue to fund raise until the end of her Mayoral year in May, 2016, is now thinking about what her next fundraising challenge is going to be. You can still donate money to her causes by visiting her GoFundMe page.

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SUCH a lot has been happening in Thame over the past week while Thame.Net has been away, that we’ve decided to give you an all-in-one, news digest in bite-size chunks from the news we think you won’t want to miss.

GUIDANCE to the district council (SODC) on affordable home contributions has changed which is good news for the future numbers of ‘affordable homes’ in the district. Some Government guidance that made it more difficult for SODC as the planning authority to meet its affordable housing targets has been overturned by the High Court. The guidance said SODC could only ask developers to provide affordable housing in developments over ten homes, whereas under the district council’s own policies, it could. The council has said that unfortunately, while this guidance was in place, it missed out on a small number of affordable homes on planning decisions it made, but now the council will be returning to using its own policies.

LOCAL Optometrist Ivan Cammack has completed a mammoth cycling challenge over the weekend, pedalling 174km (108.1 miles) to raise money for charity. Ivan, who owns eye care practices in Chinnor, Thame and Wendover, smashed his original target of £1250 and has so far raised over £2000 for Optometry Giving Sight. The money will go towards preventing blindness and impaired vision in countries where access to eye care is limited.  As part of a cycling team of six, Ivan completed his challenge on Sunday 30th August, riding the entire 1st Stage route of the Tour de Yorkshire. Starting in Scarborough, the team passed through the North York Moors National Park, Dalby Forest and back along the coast via Whitby to finish up in Scarborough. The gruelling route features a 1.5km climb out of Robin Hood’s Bay with an average gradient of 10%.

TOMORROW, September 4, sees local singer-songwriter, Lucy Mair, release her debut single, The Fool. The seventeen year-old musician signed to Thame-based record label, BFS Records, in June 2015 and she has spent the last two months perfecting her debut studio EP. Whilst the EP won’t be released until the Autumn, Lucy’s single will be available via all good digital retailers on September 4, and the release will be celebrated with an intimate launch party at the very studio in which the EP was record. Limited tickets are available to the public at www.bfsrecords.co.uk. The launch event will take place at Blackfrog Studios (Jefferson Way, Thame) with music commencing at 8.30pm.

TAL (Thame Arts & Literature Festival) 2015 Box Office is now open and not only can you visit Thame Town Hall on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays or telephone TAL 0871 288 3420, but you can choose and order tickets in the comfort of your own home. Go on-line to http://tal-festival.myshopify.com/ No charge for using cards! There are 36 events taking place in the 6th Annual TAL Festival. Check them all out at www.talfestival.org and book quickly. Includes music, TAL kids, short story, poetry, Workshops and cinema.

THAME FOOD FESTIVAL is really excited to have Ben Ebbrell from SORTEDfood chatting to Lotte Duncn at 3pm on the Interview Stage. Have a quick look at their YouTube channel to see why they have over 1.25m subscribers. https://www.youtube.com/user/sortedfood PHOTO

ALSO, the organisers of the Thame Food Festival are hungry for help from volunteers. They would be really pleased to hear from anyone who could spare an hour or two to help in the run up to the event, or on the day to help the event run smoothly. If you can spare some time please email alison@thamefoodfestival.co.uk

FLORENCE Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC), which looks after many people from the Thame area with life-limiting illness,  has today officially announced it will be opening a new retail outlet in Haddenham, located at 20 Fort End, with a focus on encouraging local supporters to drop donations for sorting and distribution to the charity’s six shops in Aylesbury, Chinnor, Leighton Buzzard, Wendover, Winslow and recently-opened Thame. The store will be used primarily as a ‘Donation Drop Zone’ to encourage donors to drop off their donations, which will then be transported to the Charity’s newly-established Distribution Centre in Aylesbury (a new Furniture Showroom, located on Chamberlain Road, Aylesbury, and set to be unveiled by the Town Mayor of Aylesbury, Cllr Allison Harrison, on Saturday at 10am), where they will be sorted and stored – awaiting despatch to FNHC’s current shops. The store will be manned by volunteers, with opening times and an opening date to be confirmed in the near future. If you are interested in supporting your local hospice, and have a few hours to spare each week, please contact Tracey O’Hara, FNHC Volunteer Services Manager on 01296 332600 for an informal chat or email traceyohara@fnhospice.org.uk You can also find more information about volunteering via this link – www.fnhospice.org.uk/main_menu/get- involved/volunteering/

THAME Town Council Saturday Surgeries are to be reinstated, and no matter how you feel, councillors want to hear from you! Saturday Surgeries were reviewed in 2013 and replaced by an online meeting request service whereby members of the public could book a meeting with a Councillor at a time and place of their choosing. This system will still be available but will be complemented by the monthly drop-in surgeries that will take place in the Town Hall. The first Saturday Surgery will be on September 5, between 10am – 12noon, and will run every first Saturday of the month at the same time for a trial period of six months. No appointment is necessary, just go along to give your views or ask councillors a question.

TO help save money, Oxfordshire County Council is thinking about reducing the number of Recycling centres from seven down to three or four and reducing opening times by around 18 hours per week. If you share SODC’s concerns, the council is inviting residents to comment on the proposals by visiting the county council’s website
https://consultations.oxfordshire.gov.uk/consult.ti/HWRCstrategy/consultationHome The deadline is Monday October 5.

BUSES – Time is running out if you want to comment on the county council’s plans to cut funding for subsidised bus services and Dial-A-Ride. The county is looking to save more than £6 million on supported transport services and some of these savings will have to come from the £4 million a year it pays in bus subsidies and for the Dial-A-Ride service. For more information on what services could be affected and to give your views visit the consultation page http://tiny.cc/r87t2x by September 14.

RECYCLING – Now you can recycle even more from the kerbside. From September 7, small electrical waste and textiles (clothes, etc) can be put out for recycling. Textiles like torn or worn out clothes, curtains and bed sheets that aren’t good enough for charity – put any in a tied carried bag next to your green bin on recycling days from September 7. Small electrical items like toasters, kettles, irons, hairdryers, small electronic toys, and radios need to placed in a carrier bag and put out next to your Grey waste bin from September 14. For more on what can be recycled visit http://tiny.cc/md8t2x

GARDEN WASTE – If you’re one of South Oxfordshire Distric Council’s garden waste customers then you can leave double the amount out for collection on the week beginning October 12. Just one bin’s worth of extra garden waste in an open box or bag next to your brown bin on your normal collection day.

NATIONAL FITNESS DAY – On Wednesday, September 9, your local Better Leisure Centre in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse (including Thame Leisure Centre), is providing free activities for everyone as part of their involvement in National Fitness Day helping make it the most active day of the year in the UK. People across the country will be given access to gyms, health clubs, leisure centres and park sessions throughout the UK as part of National Fitness Day – the country’s largest celebration of physical activity. With thousands of free events on offer, the aim is to inspire people to get moving while making it easy and fun to try something new with free taster sessions. http://www.better.org.uk/

A group supporting an edge-of-town supermarket proposed for Thame, has publically responded to Thame Town Council’s decision to recommend refusal of plans for a supermarket, employment buildings and a petrol filling station on the DAF site at Wenman Road.

“It was obviously a very disappointing outcome to see such a decision being made by Councillors on the August 25,” Thame Needs Tesco (TNT) spokesperson, Rachel Lester told Thame.Net, “which reflected only the vested interests of the town centre lobby.”

“We feel that we put across the views of many of the real people of the town. We felt that there was lack of opportunity to put questions to the Councillors, not only from ourselves but the other group which would have made for wider discussion and allow other important aspects of the proposal to be addressed.

“Councillor Dyer questioned where Tesco staff would park if Tesco came to Thame. Thame Centre First claimed that there would be a lack of sufficient parking provision for Tesco employees and would result in neighbouring streets becoming congested with parked cars,” she continued. “This happens in Thame everyday of the week, people working in Thame park in nearby steets, Waitrose staff have to park in nearby streets which residents at times find difficult to cope with. Perhaps the John Lewis Group should be questioned about this. The last thing these people should be worrying about is where Tesco staff are going to park!

“Supporters of the campaign can be assured that we will continue to campaign for and on behalf of them for what we see is an essential part of the towns infrastructure.”

COUNCIL SAYS ‘NO!’

Thame Town Councillors recommend overwhelmingly, 10 v 2, for refusal of an edge-of-Town Tesco Superstore, at the meeting where around 120 residents and business owners packed the town hall to hear the application. They concluded that the planning application should be refused by South Oxfordshire District Council because it would threaten the viability of the town centre and did not conform to the Thame Neighbourhood Plan.

Members of Thame Centre First, a community campaign that opposes the edge-of-town superstore, spoke at the meeting on behalf of town centre businesses and local residents.

High Street businesses were represented by Chris Lindop of Mobalpa Kitchens, and Tom Newitt from Newit’st the butchers. Each spoke about the adverse impact they feared an edge-of-town supermarket would have on their businesses and the town centre. Tom Newitt explained said: “The proposed store is too large and in the wrong location – on the edge of town, away from the town centre. If it were to be approved, the effect on the centre would be highly detrimental.”

Local resident, Sue Gilbert, also spoke against the plans, pointing out that the proposed store contravened national and local planning policy, including the Thame Neighbourhood Plan. She also talked about the undesirable effect that increased noise from the supermarket would have on local residents. She told councillors: “The planning application from Tesco for an out of the town supermarket is a threat to the town centre shops and the weekly market, and undermines the principles set out in the Neighbourhood Plan.” She maintained that Tesco’s impact statement contained inconsistencies in that it tried to reduce the figures for the impact on the town centre, but also tried to demonstrate there is a need. “The two arguments are contradictory and by presenting the data in a way that tries to make both cases, it is flawed,” she said.

IMPACT STUDY CRITICISED

Sue Gilbert then went on to say that Tesco’s ‘Convenience food sales’ need has been overstated in the impact study, by overstating the Thame catchment area, the result of which, she said, would be a need for Tesco to take more from the town centre to achieve their turnover. She also noted that the convenience sales per sqM are lower than the norms quoted for other stores which, she said, needed to be investigated further. Other criticisms of the Tesco impact study she made were:
* The low estimate of diversion of comparison shopping from the independent stores is unsupported by sufficient evidence.
* The beneficial effect of Waitrose as an anchoring store for linked shopping trips to the town centre is dismissed by Tesco with no fact based evidence to support their      claims.
* Tesco state that the majority of their trade will be redirected from the Waitrose store which it justifies by stating that Waitrose is overtrading. “Using DCLG guidance      on overtrading Tesco need to demonstrate overcrowding and congestion, not simply Waitrose’s above average turnover,” she said.
* The loss of footfall in the town centre will have a detrimental effect all town centre businesses including the library, post office and banks.
* A study of 50 superstore applications showed in every case the applicants had underestimated the impact on the town centre.

PARKING

Representatives from Tesco and individuals supporting the store, including Thame’s ex Traffic Warden, Peggy Long, spoke on the benefits, as they saw them, that the store would bring the town. Peggy Long said: “We feel deeply that Thame, because it is growing rapidly with new housing estates in line with the Neighbourhood Plan, need a large supermarket to cater for not only those that live here already but for those about to come to live in Thame – also for people living in nearby villages.

“Parking is a subject we all know is a topic of conversation in Thame,” she continued. “We are rapidly running out of parking spaces. Once (ED. we have) all the houses that have been built in Thame – and those proposed in nearby villages – we will have frustrated drivers driving out of the town centre and on to other towns. Tescos on the outside of town would free up some of those town centre spaces for people that would look forward to visiting our town.

‘THAME MUST CATER FOR EVERYONE’

“Thame must cater for all of its people; the rich and not so rich; people on limited incomes; old and young; those renting who cannot afford to buy property and people who have large mortgages and need to budget carefully. Not everyone can afford Waitrose prices and the other two supermarkets have limited choice.”

EMPLOYMENT

On the matter of employment, Peggy Long said that several companies, including the Pizza factory, Schwartz Spices and Cargo, had all provided a large amount of employment for the area and had all left Thame over a number of years. “Tesco in Thame would bring jobs for all age groups,” she said.

The anti Tesco group’s view on employment implications of the proposal were that The TNP identifies retail as a key employment sector for Thame, and its policy is to retain existing employment land in employment use.  Sue Gilbert said: “The site is currently in employment use and Tesco claim they will maintain a similar level of employment to justify the change of use to retail.  But studies have shown that an edge of town store can reduce the overall retail employment levels of a town due to loss of town centre shops, so in fact there is likely to be a net loss of employment in Thame if this application is approved.”

PLAN WOULD ‘STEAMROLLER’ OVER NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN

After these representations, the council debated the planning application. Cllr Mike Dyer explained his reasons for objecting to the application, concluding, “If approved, this store would steamroller over the Thame Neighbourhood Plan and rip the heart out of the town centre.” Councillor Peter Lambert said that he believed 70% of town residents opposed the store, whilst other councillors voiced concerns that fewer people do a large weekly shop and are opting to shop more frequently at smaller more convenient stores.

The two town councillors that voted to recommend approval of the application were Cllrs Mary Stiles and Tom Wyse. According to draft minutes of the meeting (LINK HERE), these two councillors highlighted that Thame was set to grow following future housing development and that current provision within the town, with particular reference to parking, could not accommodate this additional need. Similarly, the town also needed to make provision for those who could not afford to shop at the current outlets within Thame.

South Oxfordshire District Council are expected to make the formal decision whether to approve or reject the planning application by the end of September.

SOURCE: Written statements read out by groups’ representatives at the meeting (Thame.Net was unable to attend the meeting hence no first-hand account)

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following a burglary at The Oxfordshire Golf Club, Milton Common, near Thame.  At approximately 12.10pm on Friday (28/08) offenders drove into a loading bay at the club in Rycote lane, and stole a barrel of cooking oil. The vehicle is described as a white van with an orange light on the top.

The offenders were disturbed as they were loading the barrel into the van. The first male is described as a white male, with dark hair and tanned skin, wearing a red t-shirt and possibly jeans. The second male is described as a white male, dark hair, with fair skin, he was wearing glasses, a dark jacket and dark trousers. Both males are said to have an accent, possibly Eastern European.

If you have seen any suspicious looking people or vehicles in this area or have any information relating to this message please call the police on 101.

Alternatively if you have any information but wish to remain anonymous, please call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online @ crimestoppers-uk.org. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.

OLLIE Cheney, 20, of no fixed address, admitted stealing a crate of Fosters worth £9 from the Co-op in Thame High Street on March 18, by Oxford Magistrates.

He was fined £133 and ordered to pay £27 compensation, a £20 victim’s surcharge and £85 costs.