Category: Thame news

THE Forget Me Knot Café which provides information, peer support and fun activities aimed at helping those with various mental health, isolation and age-related health issues, has published its Autumn programme.

The Forget Me Knot Café meets twice monthly on a Monday at the Chinnor Village Centre between 10.30-12.30pm, and provides activities to help with co-ordination, brain stimulation, and general health and wellbeing, for people suffering with dementia, mental health issues, old age or isolation. All are welcome to go go along, either alone or with a carer.

Café Co-ordinator, Michele Pether, said: “You will be welcomed with a cup of tea and a biscuit. We start with fun seated exercises, followed by our visiting expert. At the end of the session, we play parachute games, juggling, throwing balls, flat football, floor netball, finishing the session with a poem, lyrical or a reading.”

PROGRAMME OF EVENTS 2017
04 Sept— Music and Song – Chiltern Music Therapy, Eleanor
18 Sept – Music and Singing – Heidi from Kiddledivy
02 Oct – Music and Singing –Julia Hollander
16 Oct – Music and sining – Andrea Yates
30 Oct – Music and Singing – Julia Hollander
13 Nov – Winter Tea Dance – Ian English and Co
27 Nov – Warming to Christmas – Heidi from Kiddledivy
11 Dec – Christmas Carol – Mill Lane School Junior Choir

For further information contact 01844 353733 or email: info@holisticmassageuk.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/forgetmeknotcafe

Thames Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following a burglary in Thame, Oxfordshire.

Overnight on August 20, a property in Arnold Way was burgled. Entry was gained through a rear door.

If you have seen any suspicious looking vehicles or people in the area or have any information relating to this message, please call the police via the 24 hour non- emergency telephone number 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.

THE proposal for an Oxford to Cambridge Express Way, could be ‘a nightmare for Thame’ an Oxfordshire County Councillor has warned.

Reporting to a recent meeting of Thame Town Council, Cllr Nick Carter said that the route currently being mapped out ‘is at a sensitive stage’ and that he was ‘increasingly concerned’ about its significance for the Thame area.

If the route chosen goes to the North and North-east of Thame, he warned: “The movements of construction vehicles could be a nightmare for Thame.”

Around £3.5 million is to be spent upgrading roads including the A34 and building new ones, as well as extending the east-west rail line to form the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway. The Expressway would be a motorway-standard road between Oxford and Cambridge, via Bedford and Milton Keynes. There are three route options currently being considered (see below) and recently a company was awarded a £15m contract to examine these options.

The aim is to improve east-west connectivity between the two cities forming a ‘brain belt’ to boost the economy.

Substantial job and housing growth to support the continued economic development of the region is also being planned by local authorities along the route.

Other local roads are also set to receive more investment after Oxfordshire County Council was given a share from a national roads fund.

The government’s Oxford to Cambridge expressway strategic study: stage 3 report can be read in full HERE

A well-known, senior resident of Thame has donated funds to the Thames Valley Air Ambulance charity from the sale of her book.

Hazel Bleay, aged 86, has made many friends in Thame since she moved to the town from Oxford in 2005, to be nearer her daughter. Hazel was born and bred in Oxford and was encouraged to write her book Memories of Bygone Oxford Shops, by Malcolm Graham at the Oxford Achives. He quickly became aware of Hazel’s interest and deep personal knowledge of the history of the ever-changing face of retail in the city whenever she visited the archives.

Since it was published by Robert Boyd Publications of Witney, in 2010, 2,000 copies of Hazel’s book have been sold, including one of the most recent, to a couple from Australia who were visiting Thame Farmers Market after taking part in a Midsomer Murders tour of Thame.

Hazel told Thame.net how she happened to notice a man sketching one of Thame’s old cottages in Upper High Street, where she knew the owner. She began chatting to the man about the building, and about her enthusiasm for the history of Oxford’s shops, when the man called his wife over from the Farmers Market and they explained how they intended to visit Oxford the next day, and would love to buy Hazel’s book to help them identify the various old shops of Oxford.

Earlier this week, Hazel presented a cheque for £225 to Thames Valley Air Ambulance charity representative, Tony Coote, at her home in Swan Walk, Thame.

Not a bad achievment for someone who left school at 14 years-old, and has worked as a hairdresser, a telephonist, and for the Ministry of Agriculture, when as a youg woman, she used to travel to Thame to write out the Animal Movement licences on Thame Cattlemarket days.

These days Hazel is an active member of Thame U3A, though her health has stopped her joining in for the last couple of weeks after a fall outside a Thame beauty parlour. But Hazel is determined to get better and continue with her hobby of building model houses and shops, and discovering her family history.

Towersey Festival chosen charity

Ruth Dunkin from Thames Valley AirAmbulance, told Thame.net: “We were delighted to hear that Hazel had raised £225 for the charity from the sale of her book, and were particularly thrilled to also receive a signed copy from her. We are most grateful for the ongoing support from the community in Thame and hope to see many of you at Towersey Festival over the bank holiday weekend where we are the chosen charity for Towersey Festival.

“Do come along please and say hello – we’ll be doing face painting and have a Giant Life Size Operation game too!”

NB ** Anyone who would like to purchase Hazel’s book, can contact her via editor@thame.net.

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following an assault in Haddenham last month. At around 9pm on Saturday, July 1, a 40 year-old-man and a 46-year-old man were assaulted outside Haddenham Sports and Social Club on Chewells Lane.

One of the victims sustained a lump and a cut to the side of his head and the other required surgery for a head injury. He also sustained a broken nose and a fractured skull. He has since been discharged from hospital.

Due to the injuries sustained, neither victim can remember the assault. The incident was reported to Thames Valley Police on August 9.

No arrests have been made.

Investigating officer, Detective Constable Hannah Davison from Aylesbury Force CID, said: “These are two serious assaults, which left one of the victims requiring surgery.

“We have now launched a thorough investigation and as part of our enquiries, I would like to speak to anyone who witnessed the incidents or any suspicious behaviour in the area on this date.”

FINDING an affordable home in Thame is a challenge for young people who wish to remain in the town, because of high market costs for new builds and unaffordable rents, and Community Land Trusts are proving an increasingly attractive idea for local people themselves to find funding and other resources to provide truly affordable starter homes in their area.

Following a very positive reaction to a public presentation on Tuesday (15/08) explaining how a community can organise to provide affordable homes itself, Thame Town Council is to move forward and consider the next steps for Thame.

Catherine Harrington, from the National Community Land Trusts Network, explained to councillors and members of the public present how CLTs can be set up and how they are working for other communities all over the country. She showed several examples of CLTs, including those in East Cambridgeshire, Streatham and Wilburton, St Minver and Cumbria who each have there own business model eg Self-build scheme, crowd funded or support from local authorities and/or government grant schemes. The main point is, as Catherine pointed out, that a CLT is a community-lead project to meet the local need, aimed at delivering truly affordable homes at less than market value, that – importantly – remain affordable.

Most homes provided through local CLTs are either shared ownership, or available to buy at a cost around one third of the local market value, and remain affordable by the selling on of the property, not exceeding one third of the current market value. The idea is that homes are provided as homes, and not as an investment for the tenant.

The CLT Network can provide a start-up fund and loans that are repayable once the homes are build and money starts to be paid for either rental or sale of the homes. The government’s Affordable Homes Programme and it’s Community Housing Fund (funded through taxes on second homes) are other sources of possible funding as are bridging loans from developers and grants from local authorities.

Cllr Bob Austin pointed out that SODC has £850,000 in Section 106 money (contributions from developers towards the costs of providing community and social infrastructure, the need for which has arisen as a result of a new development taking place) – a fund likely to grow as more sites are developed around the town.

Charlie Fisher, from the Oxfordshire Community Land Trust, which offers support to Oxfordshire CLTs, was also at the presentation to explain how his organisation is there to help CLTs with set-up and delivery.  He mentioned a CLT in the Vale of White Horse which wants to provide 26 affordable homes in an old Victorian School.

A member of the public asked Catherine Harrington how a CLT in Thame would be able to compete with the market and how would it relate to the Local Plan. She replied: “You have got a number of sites already planned where there is an obligation to deliver a percentage of affordable homes. If you cannot compete, they will need to supply those homes. Your competition is more likely to come from Housing Associations.”

Cllr Bob Austen interjected, adding: “I won’t be easy to convince SODC to include CLTs in their Affordable Homes policy. But if we don’t make a start, we are never going to be able to keep young people in Thame. If we don’t try, we will never succeed. So far, only 6% has been allocated to local people through social housing. This is not sufficient! We have got to try and do our best for the local population.”

One of Thame’s County Councillors, Nick Carter, told the meeting that SODC seems to be mostly concentrating its attentions on affordable homes in Didcot, and that the subject was on the county council’s Scrutiny agenda. He asked Catherine Harrington how Crowd Funding etc had worked for some CLTs. She replied that Some CLTs used Crowd Funding for capital costs and set up costs (Ed. Lewisham-based RUSS CLT ) and others had used Community Share Issues . Some CLTs, she explained, lease land from a land owner.

A member of the public asked what happens when a tenant needs to make the leap to a bigger home, which could be an issue as families grow. Cllr Bob Austin replied that he saw CLTs as being dynamic and that he saw no reason why, as time went on, bigger homes could be built using the same model. Money created by the sale of homes could be invested into more homes he suggested.

“Our prime motivation is to help young people. There is a pausity of two-bed, affordable homes in Thame. The high price for three-bed homes are 8-10 times average earnings!” he added.

Another questioner asked what the allocation process would be; what would be the criteria for selection? That would be up to the CLT to establish, was the reply, but the main criteria usually includes people who have a local connection, people who are involved locally and they must be able to afford it!

Owen Davies, from the public gallery, asked about the costs of setting up a CLT. Caroline Harrington explained that it costs about £50,000 to get a scheme to the Planning stage.