Category: Thame news

FOLLOWING the six week statutory consultation period just completed by Thame Town Council, an ‘Examination Version’ of the Thame Neighbourhood Plan, which takes into account the representations made, is now available to read.

This latest and final version of the plan has been submitted to South Oxfordshire District Council. It consists of:

A Basic Conditions Statement which contains

A Plan and Statement identifying the area for the Neighbourhood Development Plan

The Proposed Neighbourhood Development Plan

A Consultation Statement

The whole thing, together with all the background documents, is available on the Town Council?s website www.thametowncouncil.gov.uk

South Oxfordshire District Council is now required to publish details of the Plan, where it can be inspected, how to make representations and receive notification of the Council?s decision relating to the NDP and, the date by which representations must be received.

THE Chinnor Road, from the B4445 to Towersey was closed for four hours today, for emergency high voltage line repair works after a car hit a pole carrying electricity cabling.

The road was re-opened just before 2pm this afternoon.

SELLING CHRISTMAS PUDDINGS TO THE FRENCH – This is exactly what a delegation from the Thame and District Twinning Association were doing last weekend when they visited our twin town, Montesson, to take part in the French town?s own Twinning Committee?s annual Christmas market.

Six members of Thame Twinning, led by its Chair, Jeannette Matelot Green, ventured through the Channel tunnel to sell English tea, marmalade, pickles, homemade lemon curd and cakes, and yes, Christmas puddings. This was the tenth year that Thame has taken part in Montesson?s Christmas market and over that time, has gone from having to try to explain what Christmas pudding is and only selling a few to ?ex pats? in the town, to quickly selling out of all their stock this year, and a lot of disappointed customers!
Profit made from the Christmas market goes towards helping the Thame Twinning Association ? a self-funded community group – entertaining visitors to Thame from Montesson, in May. (Photo: Three of the Thame Twinning group enjoy an evening in Paris on their way back to catch the Eurostar home – L to R, Sonja Francis, Jeannette Matelot Green and Liz Barker)

LOSS OF INTERNET AND PHONE LINES – Several areas of Thame have been affected by a loss of internet and telephone services for over 48 hours in some cases. BT says that the problem has been caused by ?suspected Cable Thefts and damage caused by third parties.?

The areas affected include Cotmore, Towersey Drive, Essex Road and Queens Road. Some have since been restored but Chinnor Road has recently been affected too.

BT?s estimated restore date is Monday, December 3.

?MOVEMBER? DRAWS TO A CLOSE – Facial hair has been sprouting on the faces of the men of Thame in support of ?Movember?,- a world-wide movement, which aims to raise vital funds and awareness for men?s health, specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer.

Tomorrow, the razors will be coming out and the contributions, so honourably raised, totted up and sent in to the various charities. ThameNews.Net will be featuring some of these men tomorrow.

RUGBY PLAYERS WILL GET THEIR KIT OFF – Tomorrow, November 30, the boys of Chinnor Rugby Club, based in Thame, will be getting their kit off to raise funds to put a new kit on!

This amazingly popular event first took place three years ago and raised more than enough to buy new kit and some for charity. The idea is a cat walk event of some 30 players from the Third & Fourth teams. Ladies in the audience get to choose the final 12 who will then feature in a calendar.

Honorary Secretary of the club, Carol Bradbrook-Taylor explained further: ?Visitors and members may have seen the very tasteful B&W photos in the Ladies? loo last season. These were from the last calendar. Trust me; these are home cultivated hunks from our own club, and not professional models!

?This event will be in the best possible taste ? for a rugby club ? and should be suitable for ladies of all ages. Tickets are

THE following ‘Have Your Say’ Meetings are being held in Thame throughout December. These meetings are your opportunity to speak with your neighbourhood officers to discuss any local issues of concern you may have:

Wednesday 5 December, at the Co-Op Cafe, High Street, Thame, between 11am and 1pm.

Monday 10 December, at Costa Coffee, High Street, Thame, between 4pm and 6pm.

Thursday 20 December, at the Co-Op Cafe, High Street, Thame, between 11am and 1pm.

If you are unable to attend but wish to speak with your neighbourhood officers, you can call 101.

THE organizers of Thame Food Festival 2013 are offering local foodies a fabulous opportunity to celebrate what will be the sixth Thame Food Festival on Saturday, September 28, 2013.

“An Evening with Raymond Blanc” will be an exclusive event, limited to just 50 places. Guests will be greeted with champagne and canap

TO celebrate its twelth birthday, the Oxfam Bookshop in Thame is launching a major winter appeal. The volunteers would like to raise

Residents in the South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse area are being advised by the police to make sure their vehicles are locked and secure when left overnight or when not in use. Remove any valuable items and do not leave anything on display.

Leaving items on display could attract the opportunist thief to target your vehicle. If your vehicle is broken into it is not just the loss of personal items but the inconvenience and cost of carrying out repairs.

Over the last six weeks the Thame area has had the highest number of thefts from vehicles reported where offenders have gained entry to insecure vehicles and stole property. Police have put on extra patrols in the Thame area and some arrests have been made.

WITH the recent heavy rainfall Thames Valley Police are advising anyone living or working in Oxfordshire to contact Oxfordshire County Council to report a flood or to get advice ? phone the Highways Team on 0845 310 11 11 and select option 1, or visit http://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/cms/public-site/flooding

For updated flood warnings, visit the Environment Agency website:
www.environment-agency.gov.uk or call 0845 988 1188

SUCH was the topic for a heated discussion at Tuesday’s meeting of Thame Town Council’s Policy and Resources committee.

The proposal on the table was to adopt the council’s revised policy for dealing with graffiti, which aims to remove ‘offensive’ graffiti on council-owned property within 24 hours, and any other graffiti within three days of its discovery.

All very uncontroversial until it got to the bit about the skate park. The proposed policy stated that: “On the Skate Park facilities, graffiti should be left as it is classed as artwork and of amenity value to the local surroundings.”

To Cllr Vaughan Humphries, a published author, that was like offering a glass of lager to a Real Ale drinker! But he had done his homework and had come prepared. His lyrical lesson in the history and philosophy of graffiti was more akin to something one would expect to hear delivered in the House of Lords, rather than the council chamber of a market town:

“Personally, this is something I find rather irksome,” he began. “I acknowledge that graffiti has been a problem for municipal bodies dating back to classical times. However, it has become part of our ‘pop’ culture from the stencilled street art of ‘Banksy’ to Simon & Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence, where you can quite clearly hear “the words of the Prophet are written on the subway walls and tenement halls…”

“We cannot deny that one of the fundamental rights that we uphold in this country is the Freedom of Expression and quite justifiably so; art is a form of expression.

“Where does the line become blurred? There is a difference between ‘street art’ that has been sanctioned and ‘graffiti’, which is defacement or vandalism of property, both of which are crimes.

“Reading a number of academic studies on the subject, it has been suggested that 85% of graffiti was of the ‘tagging’ variety, a further 10% a form of gang communication, be it asserting territorial claims or serve as a warning to others, which leaves us with 5% that we could consider to be defined as ‘art’ – and I use that term rather loosely, as I am certainly no fan of ‘contemporary art’.

“This leaves me with the following questions based on my interpretation of the (Clerk’s) report.

1. What is considered to be graffiti?
2. How will it be determined? Will it be based on a specific definition as above, and on whose judgement?
3. Why and how does the graffiti at the skate park qualify as ‘art’? (Although for the main part not offensive in content)”

Cllr Jeannette Matelot Green jumped to the defence of the skate park graffiti: “If you take the graffiti away from the skate park, you will be taking away the souls of the skaters!” she said.

Deputy Mayor, Peter Lambert’s view was: “As long as it is not offensive, it’s not doing any harm.” But this begged the question put forward by Cllr Mike Dyer: “Who makes the decision as to what is Art and what is graffiti?”

Finally the committee agreed that ALL graffiti around the town would be removed, except graffiti at the skate park, unless it was consider offensive. But the vexed question of who decides what is ‘offensive’ remained inconclusive.

IMAGE: Copyright MerlinJnr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/merlinjnr/

FOLLOWING six weeks of public consultation, and 221 responses, Thame Town Council has now officially endorsed the Thame Neighbourhood Plan and agreed on the next stage, that it be submitted for examination by South Oxfordshire District Council.

It became clear at a meeting to present the final report on the TNP at the Barns Centre, on Monday (19/11), that the most significant objections to the draft plan during the consultation period had centred on a proposal to build houses on land around the Grade 2 listed house, The Elms, in Upper High Street, Thame. Both SODC and British Heritage (among others), objected to the number and density of the units proposed. As a consequence, the number of units allowed for on this site in the TNP will be reduced by between 20% and 40%, the final number being ?the subject of on-going discussions? according to the town council.

WHAT WERE THE ISSUES OF CONCERN IN THE CONSULTATION?

Several respondents were concerned about a proposed ?linkage access? (path) from any development close by, on the eastern edge of the Stones Close allotments. As a result, this site has now been designated as ?Open space? in the final TNP to give it added protection against development.

Other concerns expressed during the consultation included that of some residents of Griffin Road, where new homes might have backed onto some properties there. Alternative options, including allowing for some possible development on what is currently Meadowcroft?s land, have been put in the final TNP.

No changes to the number of walking and cycling routes, or to the proposals for additional burial space outside the town centre, will be made to the final plan, though some respondents expressed concerns in these areas. On the subject of the number of affordable homes planned for in the TNP, individual developers will now be required to produce their own strategies, avoiding any delay thought likely if they were required to draw up a combined strategy, as suggested in the draft plan.
After presentations from the Clerk, Helen Stewart, Planning Consultant Jake Collinge and Cllr Mike Dyer, questions were invited from the audience.

A resident who asked that Towersey be included in the eventual referendum to decide whether the TNP is adopted or not, was told that although neighbouring villages were consulted, only residents in the Thame parishes were allowed to vote.

Alan Garratt, the Vicar of St Mary?s church, Thame, complained that there had been ?very poor consultation? over what was happening about finding more burial space. No one had told him, he said, that extending the current burial area into neighbouring allotments was not going to happen, nor the results of water table testing. The Clerk replied that the council was still pursuing extending the burial ground into the allotments but that even more additional space would be needed eventually. She said that the council had written to the Environment Agency asking for change of use permission.

A question was raised about how so-called ?windfall? housing developmet would impact on the number of houses Thame has to build in future years. Jake Collinge replied that the council had asked that, when we get to year 10, could we deduct windfalls, but that it was told ?no? because that would cause ?a degree of uncertainty.? However, Jake did add that there was uncertainty over the possible Lord Williams?s Upper school development, so if it has not been built on by 2020, windfall numbers could be deducted from the number of houses left to be built by the end of the period. ?We hope this will be the case, but we cannot guarantee anything,? he added.

Cllr Dyer stated that according to the recently published National Planning Policy Framework, windfalls arising in the first five years can be off-set from the numbers allocated.

Another questioner asked whether the council considered 221 responses to the consultation to be an adequate response. The Clerk replied that such a number is generally considered to be a positive response at this stage of a Neighbourhood Plan. She added that all background papers, including responses to questions will be published but not names.

Angus Lochlan asked if SODC can change the plan when it examines it, but he was assured that it could only make representations to the Inspector who will decide whether the plan is sound or not, on ?conformity? to regulations and processes. The question was raised about how people without access to the internet could follow the process to which the answer was that hard copies would be available at both the town hall and the library, and that it was hoped a simple pr