DESPITE the planned 3 – 5am demolition of the three south cooling towers at Didcot power station on Sunday (27/7), many people across Oxfordshire are making plans on where to get the best view, and today the district council has published safety warnings.
The Didcot towers from Great Haseley windmill – a view that will soon be gone; Image by Peter Matthews
In its statement, SODC says: “The demolition contractors are recommending that people stay inside and watch the blow down, which is being streamed live on the internet at tinyurl.com/didcotpowerstation, from the warmth and safety of their homes. It’s clear though that many people view this as a historic occasion and intend to be there whatever the time.
“There are safety issues to be considered if people do intend to go to Didcot and the district councils are asking people to plan their arrangements to take account of road closures and the likely direction of dust clouds. A local organisation has realised their locations are likely to get a lot of visitors during the demolition, so they’re arranging for people to view it safely from organised viewing areas.
Earth Trust, the charity that looks after Wittenham Clumps, anticipating a lot of people will want to look for a lofty, panoramic view of the power station, is opening its car park to visitors from midnight on Saturday/Sunday 26-27, to prevent people from parking on the narrow country lanes. A local food vendor will be selling hot food and drinks. Earth Trust is asking people using its car park to make a charitable donation. South Oxfordshire District Council has made a financial contribution to Earth Trust to help them manage the situation.”
THE resident of a house in Cromwell Avenue, Thame, has been turned down by the town council after asking to purchase a piece of public land at the rear of their property to extend their garden.
Satellite image showing Cromwell Avenue & the amenity area in question
The town council has decided that if the purchase of the land, behind 54 Cromwell Avenue, were to go ahead the pathway would become long and narrow leaving only a small triangle of amenity land on which trees had been planted in memory of Princess Diana.
The council says that it has plans to use the revenue from the sale of a separate piece of amenity land close by at the rear of 10 Chalgrove Road, to improve the area behind 54 Cromwell Avenue, ‘for the benefit of all the residents.’
A second, similar request, from residents at 28 Youens Drive to purchase a triangle shaped piece of amenity land at the rear of the property in order to ‘square off’ the garden, received a more favourable reply. As a shrubbery completely fills this area and is not used by the public, the town council has agreed to consider the request.
Flash back to the lantern parade Christmas in Thame, 2013
THE orange, blue and white Christmas lights that have lit up the town centre for the past three years are to be replaced for this year, 2014. The town council has agreed a new leasing arrangement for new ‘ Champagne and white’ lights at a cost of £100,000 spread over the period.
The Town Clerk, Helen Stewart, told the Community, Leisure and Recreation committee at its meeting on July 8, that it is hoped that the Christmas lighting could be extended into North Street from this year.
THAME’S Christmas ‘Switch On’ event this year will be on Friday, December 5, and it is hoped by the town council that it will include an even bigger Lantern Parade, real-live Siberian Huskies and a steam railway.
The Christmas celebrations will be extended this year into the Sunday when a ‘Santa Dash’ is planned by the Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity.
THAME Football Club’s financial losses are looking likely to be less than the £20,000 it had budgeted for this year, reported Cllr Mike Dyer to the town council’s Community, Leisure and Recreation committee recently. The club expects its loses to amount to around just £5,000, following an increase in revenue from tournements and private hire of the facilities for dance groups, weddings etc.
Cllr Dyer is Thame Town Council’s representative on the management board of Thame Football Partnership, which has received interest free loans from the town council as well as backing in the form of a Partnership agreement for £50,000 for revenue contingency and £150,000 for capital contingency, during the early stages of the club’s new build on its current site.
Cllr Dyer reported that the club hopes to break even next year, in 2015, four years after it was officially opened by the then Mayor of Thame, Adam Buckland.
AS the 50th Towersey music festival, held every year in the village over the August Bank Holiday, is gearing up, a new book has been published tracing five decades of the popular festival’s history.
The book includes 300 photographs, stories from festival-goers and interviews with many of the individuals who have shaped the much-loved annual event. Towersey Festival: 50 Years In The Making traces the festival’s history from its small-scale beginnings as a one day event in 1965, to its current position as one of the most significant and popular events in the annual folk festival diary.
Derek Schofield’s Towersey Festival: 50 Years In The Making is published on July 23, by Mrs Casey Music Ltd, and is available priced £30 (plus £5 P&P) from: http://www.towerseyfestival.com. Copies can also be purchased at the 50th festival, which runs from Thursday, August 21, to Monday, August 25, and includes performances from Richard Thompson, The Bootleg Beatles and Seth Lakeman, plus a celebration of 75 Years of Topic Records with Eliza Carthy and special guests.
THAME Barns Centre is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and is planning for a special concert, and an open day later in the autumn for anyone to visit and see for themselves the facilities available in the centre and the work that goes on by the various groups and organisations that use it.
BBC journalist Naga Munchetty with friend, gets ready to tee off
BBC journalist Naga Munchetty has achieved a new low single-digit handicap of nine, and celebrated by competing in a charity golf day in aid of Hearing Dogs for Deaf People at The Oxfordshire Golf Club near Thame, last Friday, July 11.
Naga is a huge dog lover and both her parents use hearing aids, so she was thrilled to be asked to help raise funds for the charity and show off her impressive golfing skills. Naga said; “I’m very conscious of hearing loss since I spend so much time wearing an earpiece. I was delighted to be asked to support the charity golf day and completely fell in love with the gorgeous Cocker Spaniel who helped me tee off!
The charity golf day organised by Vice Captain, Steve Smirthwaite for Club Captain Rob Daniels was very well supported by members, their friends and Hearing Dogs supporters and raised over £24,000.
THAME based tractor and groundcare specialist, Kubota UK, is continuing its pledge to support the local Thame community as part of its 35-year celebrations. Kubota has recently sponsored Thame Football Club with the loan of a B20 Series compact tractor and a donation of £2,000 for the Kubota Arena.
Frank Thompson (left) with Pavlos Panteleimonitis
The B1620 multi-task tractor will be used for brushing the artificial turf of the Kubota Arena, a floodlit 3G Astro pitch. The small tractor will enable them to de-compact the playing surface with regular brushing and sweeping of the rubber crumb overlay.
Frank Thompson, General Manager of Thame Football Club partnership, commented: “We’re delighted to be in partnership with Kubota here at Meadow View Park and would like to thank them for their support of our junior teams. The B1620 tractor and our current Kubota model will be essential in maintaining and cutting our eight pitches, which covers 20 acres of land in total.”
Adrian Langmead, Business Development Manager at Kubota, said: “We’re thrilled to be involved in Thame Football Club as part of one of our many initiatives to support Thame and our local community, which has been our home for 35 years.”
As part of Kubota’s 35-year celebrations, Kubota has also supplied Thame Council with the donation of a Kubota RTV900 to help council workers keep the town looking its best. They also joined the festivities of Thame Carnival with an open day and demonstrations at their Thame head office, as well as running Kubota floats and a selection of RTVs in the carnival procession.
AS the weather hots up – it’s 26 C at the moment in Thame, and expected to rise to 29 C tomorrow – South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) is urging everyone to stay well hydrated. Becoming dehydrated can lead to severe headaches, a lack of energy and a feeling of being lightheaded. In susceptible people this can lead to falls, faints and kidney problems.
Image courtesy of Buzzle.com
The best way to stay hydrated, they say, is to drink a minimum of two litres a day. Water and fruit juices are the most hydrating drinks and it is best to avoid fizzy, alcoholic or caffeine based drinks. The amount a person needs to drink to avoid dehydration will vary depending on a range of factors, including their size and how active they are. The more active you are, the more you will need to drink.
Mark Ainsworth-Smith, Consultant Pre-Hospital Care Practitioner for SCAS said: “We are encouraging people to be very careful during this current hot weather. It is really important to stay well hydrated and we would urge the public to drink plenty of water and fruit juices and to avoid excess alcohol. Special care should be taken for the old, the very young and for those with chronic health problems who are far more susceptible to dehydration.”
To keep up to date about staying #summersafe, you can follow SCAS on twitter at @SCAS999
A MAN from Thame has set himself the challenge of swimming along the Bosphorous Strait in Turkey, to raise funds for the cancer that killed his beloved mother.
Mike Bishop with his late mother, Barbara Coyle
Mike Bishop, 43, from Thame, will be taking part in the 26th Samsung, Bosphorus Cross-Continental Swimming Race on July 20, a 6.5km swim along the Bosphorus Strait in Turkey – the busy shipping lane that forms part of the boundary between Europe and Asia. It’s a gruelling swim in challenging conditions and against the clock because the Turkish authorities close the Bosphorus for two hours only.
It was the death of Mike’s mother, Barbara Coyle, from pancreatic cancer in April 2012, that inspired him to take on this challenge, aiming to raise as much money as possible for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (PCRF). Barbara, who worked as IT manager for the LOROS Hospice charity in Leicestershire, was just 63 and planning her retirement when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February 2012.
“For mum to die only two months after diagnosis was such a massive shock to all of us,” said Mike. “We were very close and her death hit us all really hard. Her grandchildren were her world and she was really looking forward to spending more time with them. She’d recently taken up cycling and was very fit and active.”
Director of Software Engineering for McAfee, Mike had never swum in open water before he embarked on his training schedule in January 2014. Although a reasonable, if out of practice, swimmer, he’s found the training hard going. “I was ready to pull out after my first sea swim – it went very badly and I thought I’d never be ready in time – but I was determined to carry on in mum’s memory,” he explained.
Joining Mike on the swim will be his colleague, 37 year old Madhu Halebathi Marulasiddah from Aylesbury, who is taking part for his own personal challenge. Also among the 1,500 Bosphorus swimmers, who range in age from 14 to 84, will be Pippa and James Middleton – siblings of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge.
Mike’s wife, Sue, and his sons Henry (10) and Isaac (6) will be in Turkey to cheer him on. “Sue’s been very supportive and kept me going when the training got tough. She’s proud that I’ve persevered, but I think she’s also nervous that I’ve underestimated just how hard it’s going to be – no chance of that!” he concluded.
Each year approximately 8,800 people in the UK are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It is an extremely difficult cancer to diagnose and treat because it is unusually aggressive, symptoms are often vague and generally appear at an advanced stage of the disease. Around three per cent of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer will survive for five years or more, a figure that has barely improved in forty years.
NEAR perfect conditions prevailed for the Thame Triathlon 2014, last weekend, remaining overcast for the prep, swim and the cycle but then the heavens opened during the run to cool off the competitors!
Fastest competitor in the Thame Triathlon 2014, Andrew Queralt
The overall winner was Andrew Queralt from Oxford with an overall time of 57:30. The other main category winners were as follows: U20 M- Stephen Burgess F- Tyla Page
THE clock struck 12, the heavens opened, and over 600 ladies and specially nominated male walkers donning ponchos, macs and pink bunny ears, set off from Aylesbury College for the fifth Gemstone Midnight Walk in aid of the Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC), which early indications show £45k being pledged on the night with money still to come in.
Sue Heath (left) who works at St Joseph’s school, Thame & Yvette Cundy who runs Kismet Jewellers in Buttermarket, Thame (Image Derek Pelling)
Although bedraggled, the rain failed to dampen the walkers’ spirits and bunny power prevailed with both ladies and silver ballot place male participants powering on in defiance of the weather. Three energy-boosting pit-stops spread across the 13-mile route proved extremely welcoming for soggy-eared walkers, including Aylesbury Waterside Theatre at mile six, which turned pink for the night. Walkers were re-fuelled and re-energised with water, jelly babies (a walker favourite) and jaffa cakes, with a further pit-stop around mile 10 at the Cotton Wheel, Jackson Road, for 13-mile walkers nearing the finishing line.
The first six milers crossed the finish line around 1.30am with the first 13-milers heading in at just after 3am. Richard Williams of Walton Way, Aylesbury (who had decked his shirt with over 350 Swarovski crystals for the night) was the first male 13-mile walker back, marching in at 3.25am.
A fantastic build-up to the launch saw Katy Brown of Mix96 hosting the stage show helping to entertain the crowd, as well as live music from The Zefrones, singer Sophie Ray and a Cha Cha return from Sian McCarthy & Mark Henderson, who proved why they walked away with the Charity’s ‘Strictly Florence’ 2013 dance competition crown last October at the start of the 25th anniversary celebrations of the Hospice. The walker warm-up was once again provided by Joanna Beardsmore-Dilks of GLOW fitness, who has supported the event for the past four years, which went down a real treat – thankfully just before the rain came down!
“It was an amazing night, despite the weather,” said FNHC’s Karen Shardlow. “It’s the first-time we’ve had rain in five years, but we were prepared with extra marshals in key areas in case of excess water along the route, and spare t-shirts to hand out to walkers who needed a dry layer after completing the challenge. Our walkers were fantastic and weren’t going to let anything stop them from setting off and taking on their Midnight Walk challenge in our Silver Jubilee year!
“On behalf of Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity (FNHC), I would like to say a very big thank you to our walkers, marshals, volunteers, local business sponsors, and to all those supporters who left signs of ‘good luck’ along the road, or waited up with watermelon and sweetie bowls outside their houses – this really did make a massive difference to our ladies, with the weather as it was. We are absolutely thrilled with the £45,000 pledged on the night, which means we have now smashed our fundraising target of £300,000 – the total money raised since the Gemstone Walk started in 2010.”
Karen added: “We will be announcing next year’s date this week, with some early bunny offers, so please dry those pink ears off and put them in a safe place until the Gemstone Midnight Walk returns in 2015.”
TWO brothers have been jailed for Conspiracy to Burgle in areas across two Police Forces, including several burglaries in Thame.
The pair were sentenced at Reading Crown Court on Friday, July 11, after pleading guilty to a Conspiracy to Burgle charge during an earlier court hearing.
Scott Blundell
Scott Blundell, aged 23, of Tower Field Sqaure, Northampton, was jailed for a total of five years and four months after pleading guilty to one charge of conspiracy which encompassed 19 separate burglaries. His brother Jack, aged 21, of Windsor Crescent, Harrow, was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to one charge of conspiracy which encompassed 14 separate burglaries.
Jack Blundell
The pair were arrested as part of an operation led by Thames Valley Police, following burglaries reported in Maidenhead, Aylesbury, Thame, Romsey, Shirley and Basset near Southampton in Hampshire.
The Conspiracy charge, consisted of 24 burglaries in total, although not all were included in the guilty pleas. The Thame burglaries were as follows:
Five offences in Thame on Tuesday, March 4; Hazelrig Drive, three offences in Henrietta Road, and Overton Drive. All the burglaries were committed late at night or in the early hours of the morning when the brothers targeted insecure front doors which had not been double locked with a key by the occupants prior to them going to bed for the night.
THAME Residents have enthusiastically welcomed a herd of cows to the town over the last 18 months. The cows in question are life size models featuring advertising boards which have been stationed at various sites in the town and used to promote local community events.
The cows were provided by 21st Century Thame and formed part of a project to promote market towns, which was funded by South Oxfordshire District Council and LEADER, a European Commission programme that supports community-led local economic development in rural areas. The herd are looked after by various businesses throughout the town.
You may have noticed that the cow usually next to Kismet Jewellers in the Buttermarket has moved recently to be part of the window display in Greens Furnishing. When the display is next changed, the cow will sadly have no home. So if you have an area at your business or home that is not on the public highway and you would like to give her a home where she can continue to promote community events, please get in touch with Mary Stiles at 21st Century Thame. Tel: 01844-213851 or 07779-654840, or email maryandstella@aol.com.
