Category: Thame news

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following a burglary in Thame, over the weekend.

On Saturday, June 24, between 00:30 – 01:45 a property in Goffe Close, Thame, was burgled. Entry was gained through the front door, and two vehicles were stolen.

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.

A Boards and other street furniture – CLLR Mike Dyer reported that an A board that had nothing to do with any Thame business, had been padlocked to a item of street furniture in the Upper High Street, for over three months. The Town Clerk replied that as the town council did not have a policy on A boards, nothing had been done about it.

He did add though that an update from the Highways Authority on the regulations relating to the placing of street furniture on the highway, as had been requested by members at the Planning Committee back on April 25, would be given at that committee’s meeting next Tuesday, June 27.

The question of street furniture had been brought up at April’s meeting, during consideration of a Planning Application from What’s Cooking in Cornmarket, for outdoor seating. Some members of the Committee had expressed concern with regard to health and safety as a result of cafes extending onto the pavement and had requested that Town Council officers seek clarification from the Highways Authority.

Town Centre Sports Event

THE council noted and welcomed the Town Centre Sports Event that will take place this evening, Friday, June 23, 2017. TTC has provided £1,500 otowards the overall estimated cost of £8,000 for the event. As last year, the High Street Car Park will be closed from mid-afternoon. Full details HERE

Claim your money for community projects

DURING this week’s Thame Town Council meeting, one of Thame’s three District Councillors, David Dodds, reporting back the council on SODC matters, revealed that £15,000 is available for projects that are intended to offer community benefits in each ward area.

Every South Oxfordshire district councillor has a grant budget of £5,000, from which any amount from £500 to the whole £5,000 can be awarded per successful applicant group. The basic rules and criteria for applying, and how to apply can be be found on SODC’s website HERE 

CHINNOR Quarry site has been an attraction to the public for many years for swimming in the disused lake.

This site is owned by Taylor Wimpey and is private land, therefore anyone found on the Quarry site is trespassing.

Due to the recent warm weather, Thames Valley Police are getting a large increase in calls to the site, to assist the site security in removing members of the public who are swimming and putting themselves in danger.

The Quarry site is surrounded by sheer cliff faces with unstable groundwork. This leaves the public extremely vulnerable when walking around the site. The lake itself holds deep water with hazardous/unknown objects inside, harmful to those who are choosing to swim there, and there is limited lifesaving equipment available.

Thame Neighbourhood Policing Team would like to remind members of the public of the dangers of accessing the site and would appreciate your cooperation in not attempting to visit the Quarry.

DESPITE a very warm and sticky council chamber on Tuesday, (June 20), Thame Town Council managed to deal with a full agenda, including the proposed phone mast in Southern Road Rec, changes to the new town flag design, a new plan for the access to the proposed development at The Elms, wilting bin men, Men’s Shed and ‘clutter’ on the pavements.

PHONE MAST

A decision on whether to agree to the plans for a phone mast near the Southern Road Recreation ground before they are submitted to SODC, has been deferred.  The decision was made after much discussion, to allow time for councillors to address some of the concerns they had, and those of some members of the public who had taken part in a public consultation.

The basic concerns were that it is in the wrong place and should be sited further back in the trees, that it may be a health hazard eg one respondent’s fear that it might effect his heart pacemaker, and that it may impact on wildlife.

A spokesman for the Communications company that want to build the mast, told councillors that the mast would comply with International Commision on Communication standards and that several organisations, including WHO and Cancer Research had found no evidence of harm to people from such masts. Cllr Mike Dyer however, said that he would like to see some response and information sent to those with objections and fears, from the applicant before he felt able to make a decision.

“It feels as if there is an attempt to rush this through. I am sitting on the fence. We need to do due diligence for the public before we make a decision,” he said.

Citing the mast near the Chinnor Rugby Club, Cllr Nichola Dixon made the point that most people walk past these masts without noticing them, though that particular one ‘is tucked away in the trees’. “Why can’t this one be moved back?” she asked. Cllr Dixon added: “The trouble is, everyone wants 4G etc but they don’t want a mast!”

Cllr Mary Stiles added: “There was a lot of hoo-ha about the one near Newitt’s, but now you don’t notice it.” Cllr Bob Austin suggested that if the Southern Road mast were painted green, it might blend in better.

 

 

TOWN FLAG

FOLLOWING advice from the Flag Institute, the winning design for a new Thame town flag has had to be been amended. With the agreement of the winner, Hazel Mann, the town motto wording has been removed and the image changed to a mirror image of the original, so that the wavy lines, representing the River Thame, will wave around in the wind on the side opposite the flag pole.

THE ELMS

THE town council voted unanimously to recommend refusal of the lastest Listed Building Consent application by Rectory Homes, for alterations to the access to any new development on the land known as The Elms, in the Upper High Street, behind the Memorial Gardens.

Councillors were not happy that the application does not take into consideration of Oxfordshire County Council’s new parking scheme, involving double yellow lines only near entrances, agreed after public consultation. Also, there was some concern, expressed by Cllr Helena Fickling, that the new plan shows a fence either side of the entrance to a shared motor/pedestrian/cycle path. The previous plan, for which Rectory has planning permission she said, shows a separate path. “It is not safe to mix shared access with traffic,” she concluded.

The third and latest full Planning Application for this site, for 85 dwellings and apartments for extra care homes is awaiting determination by SODC. An application for 37 dwellings and publicly accessible open space was submitted and granted permission in August 2015, but the work never started. A second application in July, 2016, for 87 dwellings and apartments for extra care homes was applied for, P16/S2407/FUL, but subsequently withdrawn.

You can view the full Listed Building Consent application discussed for The Elms  HERE

 

 

WILTING BIN MEN

THAME’S bin collection on Monday this week, June 19, was suspended after several bin men we taken ill because of the heat, and some vehicles broke down. Rubbish collection was however completed the following day.

MEN’S SHED

THE Town Clerk reported that a suitable site was still being sort, for the ‘Men’s shed‘ or ‘Social Shed’, a project launched back in September 2016. He said that a site near the Chinnor Rugby Club was being looked into.

PAVEMENT ‘CLUTTER’

IN response to a question from Cllr Nichola Dixon, as to whether Jack and Alice, iin Buttermarket, Thame, had permission to put chairs and tables out on the pavement in front of its restaurant (as they did during the recent hot weather), the Town Clerk replied that he didn’t know, but that ‘Permission is supposed to be sought but nobody does!’

“It all depends whether we want to ‘live and let live’ or go by the letter of the law,” he concluded. The Clerk, Graham Hunt, also revealed that he had written to Jack and Alice asking them to work with Prezzo next door, for a solution to the ‘unsightly’ line of bins that stands out on the pavement in front of the two establishments. (See LINK)

** More reports from a hot, sticky council chamber tomorrow!

A planning application for a new restaurant and delicatessen in Thame, has been granted by South Oxfordshire District Council, against the recommendation of Thame Town Council.

Wildwood Restaurants proposed to subdivide what is currently Greens in Upper High Street, Thame, into two separate units: a Deli and restaurant area at the front (where Green’s shop is currently) and a second unit behind, which will be used as Green’s shop, with a separate entrance from the alley way to the left of Green’s.

The planning permission reads: “The proposal complies with the relevant development plan policies and national planning guidance. The council is satisfied, on balance, that the proposed use would not undermine the vibrancy or commercial vitality of Thame town centre or result in a loss of employment. The proposal is also acceptable in terms of the impact upon the wider conservation area and the special architectural and historic interest of the listed building, subject to the acceptability of a subsequent listed building consent
application.

“The council is also satisfied that the proposed use would not result in a harmful impact upon neighbouring amenity or highway safety.”

When the application came before Thame Town Council’s Planning Committee, it voted to recommend refusal of the application, mainly on the grounds that more large, waste wheelie bins in the area, would add to the ‘eyesore’ already created by the bins outside Prezzo and Jack and Alice, close by.

The final accepted plans however, include a statement that: “all refuse and waste relating to the proposed units shall be stored within the building or in the location shown on the approved site plan ref: P101A.”

You can see the complete plans and associated documentation HERE

A new Thame Neighbourhood Plan now seem ‘inevitable’ according to the Minutes of a meeting of Thame’s Neighbourhood Plan Continuity Committee, to be submitted to Thame Town Council this evening (20/06).

The particular Minute, Neighourhood Plan Review / Amendments, states that ‘..it now seems inevitable that a fully revised Neighbourhood Plan would be required to be prepared over the next two years which while still allocating land for housing, employment and retail, would need to have more detail on specific infrastructure provision’.

“It would provide an opportunity to strengthen the existing Neighbourhood Plan, a lot of which would carry over into the new Plan,” the document goes on.

Members of the committee, under the chairmanship of Cllr Bob Austin, voted to lift the current moratorium on discussions with potential developers ‘to enable evidence to be gathered at a local level, rather than being left to the Planning Authority’. Members felt that if the current moratorium remained in place, the Town Council would be left ‘out of the loop’ and developers would talk directly to the District Planning Authority.

Under another Minute, Employment Land provision in Thame, it was noted that the main barrier to expansion by SMEs,(Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) in South Oxfordshire was the lack of suitable premises and so, it goes on: “The next Neighbourhood Plan needs to reinforce policy and strategy for the implementation and promotion of deliverable employment sites and regeneration of existing sites.

“The new Local Plan still only allocated 2ha of employment land to Thame. There is a need to establish an evidence base which includes provision for employment land lost through permitted development since 2011, as well as new provision. Given the success of the Groves and Windles site any new single employment site would need to be occupier led rather than developer led.

“Residential growth needs to grow hand-in-hand with that of employment to maintain an acceptable balance, keeping both in and out commuting at an acceptable level,” was the conclusion.

A decision whether to agree to the possible siting of a phone mast in Thame, will be discussed by Thame Town Council this evening at a meeting of the full council.

A public consultation on the proposal has now closed, and responses are mixed between supporting the proposal or objecting to it on various grounds.

Those responding unfavourably to the proposal gave a variety of reasons including the location near a recreation area as unsuitable, health concerns and possible vandalism.

You can read the full report and other associated documents HERE  (Item 20)

The meeting begins at 6.30pm and is open to the public.

THE charity, Medical Detection Dogs, is appealing to all its friends, supporters and service users to vote online to help them receive a £25,000 Community Award from the Freemasons.

As part of Freemasonry’s 300th anniversary celebrations, the Masonic Charitable Foundation is distributing three million pounds to 300 charities across the country, and Medical Detection Dogs is one of those selected.

Each of the nominated charities will receive a grant, but the public vote will determine how much they receive, ranging from £4,000 to £25,000. Those who want to vote should visit the MCF website mcf.org.uk/vote, select the Bucks page and vote for the charity of your choice. For Oxfordshire charities, go to https://mcf.org.uk/region/oxfordshire/ The voting period is from Monday, June 12 until Monday, July 31.

Francesca Hockham, Fundraising Manager at Medical Detection Dogs said: “A grant of £25,000 would make a huge difference to our work. I would urge anyone and everyone to go online and vote for Medical Detection Dogs. Please remember that every single vote counts.”

The Masonic Charitable Foundation obtains all of its funding from Freemasons and their families. It is estimated that half of Freemasonry’s total charitable expenditure of over £33m goes to charities that help people in communities across the country. Gordon Robertson from Bucks Freemasons said: “We are proud to be able to support many charities across Bucks, but in this special 300th anniversary year we want to involve the public, as well as local Freemasons, in deciding which of the nominated charities should benefit most. I urge everyone to visit the website and vote.”

To vote for Medical Detection Dogs to win up to £25,000, visit mcf.org.uk/vote