SEVENTEEN offenders brought to book in August, increase in thefts from vehicles, fuel thefts from HGVs, lost dogs and more in this month’s Neighbourhood policing update.
Follow the LINK to read about these and other policing matters in and around Thame.
WITH autumn lurking on the horizon and the ‘flu season following not far behind, The Rycote practice in Thame has announced that it will be soon launching its ‘flu vaccination programme.
The programme will start with two Saturday morning clinics on 8/10/2011 and 22/10/2011 between 08.30am ? 10.30am.
All patients who meet the following criteria are eligible for NHS vaccination:
over 65 years
over 6 months in the following clinical risk groups
Chronic respiratory disease including asthmatics who are on continuous or repeated use of inhaled or systemic steroids or with previous exacerbations requiring hospital admission
Chronic heart disease
Chronic renal disease
Chronic liver disease
Chronic neurological disease
Diabetes
Immunosuppression
Pregnant women
residents of long-stay residential or care homes
those in receipt of carer?s allowance
Further weekday clinics will be announced in due course.
IMAGE: Courtesy of Lambsgatessurgery.co.uk
THE case against a hotel worker who decapitated a fellow employee at The Oxfordshire, near Thame, over a year ago has been further adjourned at the request of lawyers.
Oxford Crown Court heard this afternoon that the accused, Jonathon Limani, is now far more unwell than he was last time he was in court in June, because his move to Broadmoor High Security Hospital for treatment was delayed until the August 23. He is therefore considered to be unfit to plead for the time being.
The case was adjourned until November 3, by which time, the court heard, Limani would have undergone treatment which is expected to be effective, and render him fit to plead (though this will depend on the results of a report from the psychologist treating him, nearer the time).
It is expected that Limani will plead to either murder or manslaughter due to diminished responsibility. The judge will then decide whether he will receive a prison sentence or be confined to a high security psychiatric hospital.
Jonathan Limani was originally charged with the murder of Christopher Varian, aged 32, on Saturday, August 21, 2010, at The Oxfordshire Golf club and hotel, near Thame. Mr Varian’s decapitated body was found close to the kitchen area door of the hotel.
PHOTO: The late Christopher Varian
ACCORDING to sources, the reported job loses at CPM are being attributed to the company losing a lucrative contract to a call centre in the Philipines.
The contract concerned was for Dairy Crest’s online milk and grocery delivery service, Milk & More.
Other Dairy Crest campaigns will apparently remain with CPM in Thame, but the Milk & More household campaign will end around the middle of October.
A CHINNOR woman and a group of friends from the Thame area, will embark on a 90 mile walk to raise funds for research into the cancer that killed her sister.
Tessa Bradon told Thamenews.net: “My much loved sister Nikki died of pancreatic cancer on 10 January 2011. We were all deeply shocked when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May last year, and told there was no hope of recovery. This is a devastating disease which is mainly diagnosed at such a late stage that it has already spread and is fatal, despite it taking about 10 years to develop.
“As a memorial to my wonderful sister, I am going to walk from my home to hers. Several good friends have offered to share this 90 mile journey with me. Our team will walk about 15 miles a day, starting on 31 August in Chinnor and finishing on 5 September in Burton Overy, in Leicestershire.
“We want to support research into pancreatic cancer to find a way of making an earlier diagnosis, so that life saving treatment can be carried out. My wish is that individuals and their families will not in the future, have to endure dealing with a diagnosis of this disease that has so little hope of recovery.”
The ladies need to raise a minimum of
A week after a national TV company featured Thame carnival controversially being ‘rescued’ by Peter Andre, a local film maker has released her video of the event.
Emma Lowndes, whose company, Scissor Paper Stone set up Thame TV two years ago, filmed this year’s carnival in June but has only just obtained permission from Peter Andre’s production company to release his image.
Follow the link to view Emma’s video:
AS record GCSE results were being celebrated all over the UK this morning, there were mostly happy faces at Lord Williams?s School today as Year 11 students received their GCSE and Diploma results.
72% of students gained five or more A* – C grades, with 63% achieving five or more A* – C grades, including English and Mathematics. This is slightly down on last year when 80% of students achieved five or more A* – C grades, with 69% achieving 5 or more A* – C grades, including English and Mathematics.
Over all, 97% of students achieved five or more passes at A* – G.
Headteacher, David Wybron, commented, ?I would like to congratulate our students on their considerable achievements. Their hard work and the invaluable guidance from teachers and support staff has led to very pleasing outcomes for them.?
The following students gained at least eight passes at A* level:
Layla Batchellier, Tanya Batchellier, Iona Caseby, Greg Duncan, Jamie Goetz, Kathryn Jowett and Alice Niedzielski.
Also, the following students gained at least seven passes at A* or A level:
Joanne Bailey, Emily Baker, Jessica Ballantine, Laura Batt, Emma Beard, Mark Brougham, Sophie Crowe, Sarah Dore, Joshua Entwistle, Matthew Faulkner, Hilary Goode, Rebecca Harmsworth, William Herd, Ellen Higgs, Thomas Hook, Emma Hornett, Max Judge, Tom Keen, Robin Kendall, Remi King, Ciara McBrien, Cameron McGarry, Zoe McStay, Ronan Patrick, Emma Pearce, Jack Pearce, Daniel Pickering, Meg Roberts, Caitlin Stanway-Williams, Jess Storey, Jonathan Stracey, Ellen Taylor, Gemma Tunley, Jonah Woolfe and Jan Zaloga.
Nationally, almost one in four (23.2 per cent) pupils scored at least an A grade this year – including A* grades – up from 22.6 per cent in 2010.
THAME’S retained fire offices have been busy this week attending two Road Traffic Collisions locally, one which left a man with very serious leg injuries.
It took fire offices, some using a special rescue vehicle, over two hours on Tuesday (23/08) to extricate the driver of a car which collided with a coach in Thame Road, Oakley, close to Morgan’s Mini Diggers.
Watch Manager at Thame fire station, Andy Ford, told Thamenews.net: “I would like to warn everyone that after hot, dry weather, when it rains all the grease rises to the surface and makes the roads treacherous.”
Andy and his team had previously been in action on Monday (22/08) when a young female driver escaped injury when her car overturned on the A418 just past the Haddenham turn.
That stretch of road was undergoing roadworks at the time and witnesses say there were pockets of gravel up to 3″ deep on the surface. There were 20mph signs at the time but the road was closed for the rest of the night after the incident until Highways Dept officers could inspect the road.
IMAGE: Fire crew cut trapped driver from a car -(courtesy of Medicblog999 – for illustrative purposes only
THE TV programme that showed Peter Andre ‘saving’ the Thame carnival, has angered many residents who feel that the show badly misrepresented the town and its community.
Almost all the comments on social networking sites where residents have been voicing their opinions, express anger and disappointment at ITV2’s ‘Here to Help’ portrayal of their town.
Celebrity cook, Lottie Duncan reflected the views of many in her facebook posting following the programme last Thursday, August 18: “Thame was made to Look like a town that had lost it’s soul and community. A place where nothing is ever held and it’s people have no spirit. Enter Peter to save us. Er …. No thanks possum. As much as he is a lovely chap and I do like him, the producers had to have a story, some jeopardy and team Andre saving the day. But it was a nonsense and has done Thame no favours. Is this the same Thame that had an Italian Market last week and the one with an arts and literature festival? And don’t forget the huge Thame food festival in September!”
Someone else who took part in the carnival said: “I was a performer that was involved on the floats and was disappointed that there wasn’t more footage of the other acts/floats/performers that were all involved in tonight’s H2H episode. I wrote to Peter about how it was portrayed wrongly on TV.”
Some commentators were more pragmatic, including
Beverly Cort. She said: ” …Petes management are obviously gonna make him look good. Look on the brightside it raised awareness of the Carnival and got it a lot of publicity.”
Chair of this year’s carnival committee, Cllr Nicola Dixon, added: “Although the TV show wasn’t all we had hoped for, it has got us some extra volunteers for next year, so every cloud and all that!”
To read more comments, go to: http://www.facebook.com/ThameTV
What did the Thame business community think?
Kristian Winslade, who runs Fore Golf in Buttermarket with his father, made his views clear on the Thame facebook page: ” His team….. was talking as though we’re a bunch of lifeless dead-beats; Thame has a thriving community; look at the music in the park for example, and I’m sure Peter would’nt be invited to play there! Overall I think the program gave a bad representation of the town. As a shop manager, I don’t think it did us retailers much good at all.”
Someone else commented: “Personally speaking, as someone who holds a regular stall at the carnival, this year was not as good from a business perspective compared to past years. The people that were there (and I will argue about the 10,000 stated in the shows press release) hung around the stage waiting to see him and didn’t circulate.”
More comments on: http://www.facebook.com/thametown
WHAT did YOU think of the programme? Contact: editor@thamenews.net
PHOTO: Alan Haigh, Headteacher of John Hampden School, receives the award for best Carnival entry from Peter Andre
FOLLOWING references on social network sites to redundancy notices being given to a reported 50 members of staff employed by Thame’s biggest employer, the company itself has issued a statement.
Sarah Webster, PR Consultant to CPM, whose head office is in Aylesbury Road, Thame, told ThameNews.Net: “I can clarify that as an outsourced sales organisation providing staff to work in sales environments on behalf of a wide range of clients, CPM routinely up or down-scales its headcount in response to its clients? requirements.
“The company is currently going through a consultation process with a number of its staff, but would not be legally permitted to comment further until that process is complete.”
No one from CPM was willing to comment further at the time of going to press.