Category: Thame news

OXFORDSHIRE’S fundraising firefighters, including Andy Ford from Thame Fire Station, have revealed the special kit they have had made for their thousand mile sponsored cycle ride – just one month before they set off on their epic journey from John O’Groats to Land’s End.

On May 13, a group of 18 cyclists from Oxfordshire’s Fire and Rescue Service, along with a support team of four, including Andy Ford on a motorbike, will set off south on the 1,006 mile journey. Oxfordshire covers 1,006 square miles hence the distance they aim to cover.

Clive, the training resources officer, said: “The new kit mirrors the protective clothing the fire service now uses. We wanted the outfits to represent us as firefighters rather than us do the trip in ordinary cycling clothing. The kit also includes the reflective bands we have on the firefighting clothing we wear at incidents, which are a good safety measure making us more visible when we are riding.”

Leading the pack will be Chief Fire Officer Dave Etheridge who is personally undertaking the ‘top to bottom’ tour as a ‘Chief’s challenge.’ He said: “We have three aims which are to promote health and wellbeing, to raise a fantastic £100,000 for the Fire Fighters Charity and, obviously to make it to Land’s End safe and sound!

“The target of £100,000 is the largest sum we have ever tried to raise in a single event and we are hoping everyone will get behind us by sponsoring team members, making donations, pledges and buying raffle tickets.

“Our journey will take us 14 days (we will be having a rest day!) riding approximately 80 miles a day and stopping at eight different Fire and Rescue Services – Scottish, Cumbria, Lancashire, Staffordshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire, Devon & Somerset and finally Cornwall. On the Oxfordshire leg we will involve Royal Berkshire and Buckingham & Milton Keynes Fire and Rescue Services, inviting them to be part of the ride as we travel through their counties.”

The fundraising firefighters’ ages range from early 20’s to 63 and they are all enthusiastic cyclists. Some are veterans of an Oxford to Bonn ride whilst others are new to long distance riding – meet the team here http://www.jogle2016.co.uk/meet-the-team.html

Each team member is giving up their own time to undertake the ride and train, fundraise and promote health and wellbeing. People can sponsor the team through Virgin Money Giving (virginmoneygiving.com/team/jogle2016) and all proceeds will go to The Fire Fighters Charity, a national charity that supports firefighters.

The team are partnered with Oxford Brookes University and Oxfordshire County Council Public Health who are both assisting with promoting the health and wellbeing message.

SO many Thame news snippets to report this week so here’s a digest of what’s been happening:

A MYSTERY surrounds white lines, about 3″ long, that have apparently been appearing chalked on houses in the Cromwell Road area of Thame, and also reported on social media, in Tiddington.

Some residents are linking the appearance of the chalked lines to thieves looking for dogs to steal, and with strangers seen in the area, including one in a resident’s drive-way.  PCSO Diane Jackson has advised anyone who sees anything suspicious to call 101 and report it.  (A similar series of incidents were reported in Durham back in January 2015

CRICKET coach, Manoj Parmor, is hoping to bring a ‘Street Cricket Party’ to Thame, as part of the town’s celebrations for the Queen’s 90th birthday. He’s looking for sponsors to help pay for a free-to-participants, Street Cricket event in the centre of Town, on June 10. The estimated cost of the event is £5,000 which includes road closures, security, equipment, entertainment and a gift for every child who participates. Mr Parmor is seeking help with funding via grants or sponsorship and may be awarded part of a £4,352 Queen’s Birthday Celebration grant offered by South Oxfordshire District Council, to be distributed at the discretion of the town council.

Other activities planned for the birthday celebrations include the Beacon lighting, a festival quiz, the Carnival, St Mary’s Flower festival and community bunting making – details to follow!

A CHILDREN’S Centre working group in Thame is planning for both a worst case scenario and a better scenario, while waiting for a decision about all Oxfordshire’s Children’s Centre’s, due in May. Thame Town Cllr Mary Stiles, a member of the Red Kite Children’s Centre Working Group explained this ‘two pronged approach’ at Tuesday’s meeting of the council’s Community, Leisure and Recreation committee.

The worst case scenario would be that all funding from the County Council would be withdrawn, she explained, although the latest information was that funding would be in place until the end of the current financial year. If OCC decide that £2 million pounds set aside in its February budget, can be used for ‘Children’s Centres’ instead of for ‘Children’s Services’ targeted at the most needy (a matter of a difference of interpretation between Officers and Councillors of what was actually decided), some Children’s Centres might be able to survive.

The Thame working group, made up of Cllr Stiles, members of Sharing Life Trust and the Thame Alliance Group, are looking at ways to maintain a local provision, perhaps around using the current premises in the old library building with a peppercorn rent paid to the County Council. Grants are currently being sought from local organisations and the plan is to hopefully, keep a service running and open to everyone:…”not just targeted at certain families,” explained Cllr Stiles.

“You don’t have to be poor to suffer from Post Natal Depression or to be lonely,” she added.

MUSIC in the Park is only two and half weeks away (May 1), and tickets are now available. They will be for sale on the community stall at the Thame Tuesday market for the next two Tuesdays, and again outside the town hall on April 23 and 30. The headteacher of John Hampden school, Thame, Paul Hanky, who will be performing with his band, The Rattlesnakes, will perform the official opening.

The organisers of Music in the Park have issued an appeal for an offer of storage space for files / equipment which is currently housed in temporary accommodation. Please contact the MIP Head Office via the website http://www.musicinthepark.org.uk/contact.html if you can help.

THE town council is to consider placing a flagpole to fly a Union flag in the Memorial Gardens in Upper High Street, following a suggestion by Cllr Tom Wyse. He told fellow councillors at Tuesday’s CLR meeting that seeing the flag there might make people think more about what the War Memorial means and what the gardens are there for.

THAME CARNIVAL could see town councillors dressed up as Wombles processing through the town, after councillors voted to take part in the event to draw attention to their Anti-litter campaign.

THE Mayor of Thame has suggested that Thame’s cricket ground at Church Meadow should be relocated to make room for more burial spaces.

The Mayor, Cllr Nichola Dixon’s suggestion came at Tuesday’s meeting of Thame Town Council’s Community, Leisure and Recreation Committee, during a discussion about options open to the council to provide urgently needed, additional burial plots – St Mary’s churchyard has only 15 places left!

The council is waiting for planning permission from SODC to extend into the allotments at Priest End, which the town council has already bought.

Other possible sites for a cemetery include the new housing development on Site C2, to the south of Thame, and the grass area behind The Tythe Barn in Priest End.

“Ideally, we need to keep the burial ground near the church,” said the Mayor. “Who would want to have the church service in one place and have to go elsewhere for the burial?”

A meeting of all the stakeholders, including church authorities, is to be held on April 25, to discuss how to move forward to address the shortage of burial space, both in the short and the longer term.

THAME will be one of 1,000 beacons to be lit across the United Kingdom to celebrate the 90th birthday of Her Majesty The Queeen, on April 21, 2016.

The beacon will be lit in front of the Town Hall and everyone is invited to gather together from 7pm to share the Queen’s lifetime of service to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. The evening’s celebration will include performances from Thame Concert Band and Thame Pop Choir, who will accompany the crowd in singing ‘Happy Birthday’. There will also be an inspection of 594 (Thame) Squadron Air Training Corps and Thame Army Cadet Force.

Following the performances, the Town Mayor, Cllr Nichola Dixon, will light the Thame beacon, joining the hundreds of others that will be ignited across the country.

Beacons will be lit at churches, on farms, country parks, village greens and on country estates. Lighthouses, National Trust and English Heritage properties are also taking part. The Army Cadet Force are taking special gas fuelled Beacons to the top of the Four Highest Peaks in the UK:

• Ben Nevis – Scotland (1st Battalion Highlanders Army Cadet Force)
• Mount Snowdon – Wales (Clwyd and Gwynedd Army Cadet Force)
• Scafell Pike – England (Cumbria Army Cadet Force)
• Slieve Donard – Northern Ireland (2nd NI Battalion Army Cadet Force)

Mayor, Nichola Dixon said: “Many different organisations are taking part from all areas of the local community including Town, Parish and Community Councils and Youth Organisations. Thame is delighted to be one of over 1,000 beacons to be lit and we invite you all to take part in the celebrations!”

THE group of friends, who through a variety of sponsored events and fund-raising, are aiming to provide a special bench in memory of their friend, Megan Biddle, will be there at Music in the Park on Sunday, May 1.

They are appealing for donations of prizes from alcohol to sweets, for a tombola for both adults and children. If you can help, donations can be dropped of at 15 Upper High Street, Thame, any time up to Wednesday, April 27.

To find out more about this project or to donate, visit the Justgiving page at https://mydonate.bt.com/events/thatbidkid