Category: Thame news

THAME’s green message was presented in style on Saturday when hundreds of Thame school children, cyclists, dancers, veteran car drivers and businesses paraded their sustainability messages through the town centre.

The warm, June sunshine reflected the mood of a serious theme, Green Thame, A Green Future, expressed with humour and fun.

The messages on the banners carried by the various groups included; take less showers to save water, think about transport and packaging when making your purchases, get rid of your waste responsibly and recycle whenever you can and the importance of Global Links in all our lives.

The overall winners, judged by the Mayor of Thame, Cllr Adam Buckland and Thame’s MP, John Howell, was John Hampden School with their message, “John Hampden creates by recycling,” all wearing costumes made from used packaging and recycable material.

After the judging, Cllr Buckland and John Howell joined Stuart Groves, The Chair of Thame Round Table, and entered into the spirit of the day with an egg and spoon race, which Stuart managed to win despite wearing a duck costume!

The message of the day was summed up by the placards carried by the children of John Hampden School:

Let’s be global
Let’s be Green,
Join John Hampden School’s Eco team!
Use our code
It is the key
to preserving our world
for eternity.

THE South Oxfordshire Community Safety Partnership is to hand out hundreds of purse bells in response to a growing number of reported purse thefts in South Oxfordshire.

This follows a similar initiative two years ago, when the partnership funded the purchase of purse chains, resulting in an 18 per cent reduction in purse thefts in South Oxfordshire.

In the past 12 months reported purse thefts have nearly doubled in towns in South Oxfordshire. Henley town in particular has seen a seven-fold increase in this type of theft but in Thame the number has gone down from 39 between 2008 and 2009, to 30 between 2009 and 2010.

The majority of victims are elderly ladies out shopping in the town centres. Thieves have been targeting these vulnerable people while they are distracted in supermarkets, post offices and charity shops, by lifting purses out of open handbags or left unattended in shopping trolleys.

The purse bells are available for elderly, disabled and vulnerable residents who request them at police stations, libraries and town halls, or One Stop shops in Didcot, Henley, Thame and Wallingford. The purse bells attach to the zip on a purse and are designed to alert shoppers should someone attempt to steal it.

Police Community Support Officers will also be organising initiatives to give out purse bells throughout the year in the main areas where the thefts are happening. These events will be publicised locally.

Crime reduction advisor, Julia Wheeler said: ?The purse bells are designed to be a deterrent to thieves, and we want to make them available to as many elderly, disabled and vulnerable residents as possible.

?We are also advising shoppers to take extra care of their belongings whilst they are out and about. Be extra vigilant of people around you and be aware of where your belongings are should anyone try to distract you.

?Never leave your handbag unattended, or in a shopping trolley, and always securely fasten your handbag, with the opening zip or flap next to your body.?

AN Oxford girl who went missing after visiting her grandmother in Wheatley on Wednesday, (9/06) has been located.
Sarah Spence, 18, from Watermill Way in Headington was last seen at 9am Wednesday (9/6) when she left her grandmother?s house in Elton Crescent, Wheatley.

She was found safe and well this morning.

AN extension to the car park at Thame’s biggest employer, caused a heated debate at Thame Town Council’s planning committee meeting recently.

CPM, based in Aylesbury Road, Thame, wants to expand its car park, which currently floods frequently. Cllr David Dodds said that he feared an extension would make matters worse by displacing the water somewhere else. Cllr Nigel Champkin Woods disagreed however and thought that the porous material proposed for the extension would not cause a problem. He added that an extension would anyway take car parking away from the surrounding roads when it was not raining – a lack of parking in these streets has often been the focus of disgruntled residents unable to find parking spaces because they are taken up by CPM staff.

The Chairman, Cllr David Bretherton, used his casting vote which led to a resolution to express No strong views on the proposal, but to express concerns over drainage in the area and leave it to the professionals at SODC to decide whether to approve or not.

IMAGE: For illustrative purposes only (NOT CPM car park)

THE body of a man was found in Shabbington area yesterday (9/6).

Police discovered the body at 8.17pm during their search for a missing man.

Police are not treating the death as suspicious.

The body is suspected of being that of Steven Truman, aged 47, from Shabbington, near Thame, who was reported missing after last being seen in Great Milton, on Monday (7/6) at 2pm.

OXFORDSHIRE County Council is to review and prioritise many schemes linked to its key services in response to likely forthcoming cuts in government funding for capital projects.

Projects to be-visited include all maintenance and building work planned to do with education, highways, fire and rescue, trading standards, social care, libraries and other services provided by the council.

The council said today that it had planned to spend around

THE Thame motorcyclist who died on Saturday after a crash at a Bicester roundabout, has been named.

He was 29 year-old Robert Thompson of Michaelis Road, Thame. Robert, who was a former pupil at Lord Williams’s school in Thame, was the father of a 13 month-old daughter.

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses to a fatal collision at Dinton, near Thame, on Saturday (5/6).

At around 6pm, a collision occurred between a Silver Mitsubishi Shogun, a red Vauxhall Corsa and a red Volkswagen Polo on the A418 Oxford Road, Dinton.

The Mitsubishi Shogun was travelling in the Thame direction when it collided with a Vauxhall Corsa heading in the opposite direction.

The driver of the Vauxhall Corsa, a 35-year-old man, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the Shogun was treated for minor injuries at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

The road was closed for almost five hours for forensic collision investigation.

Anyone with any information, or who witnessed the collision, is asked to contact the officer in the case PC Ryan Whiles of Aylesbury Roads Policing base via 0845 8 505 505. If you don?t want to talk to police or leave your name, please contact the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.

Firefighters had to be called to help release a driver near Thame, when he trapped his hand under his car while changing a wheel.

The accident happened outside the Esso station in Long Crendon Road, Thame, at around 4am on Saturday, 05/06/10.

Fire crews used hydraulic equipment to free the man.

Acknowledgement: Incident first reported in the Oxford Mail

BUILDING on the success of the two past year’s successes, Thame Food Festival 2010 promises once again to be a fantastic local event in the town centre, on September 25.

As an ideal day out for all the family and a great chance to sample and buy some of the wonderful local produce from our area, Thame Food Festival is aiming high and aspires to become one Oxfordshire’s most noted food festivals.

The recently launched website: www.thamefoodfestival.org.uk
is intended to be the focal point for visitors to the show, local producers, businesses and retailers to find out more and join in with the festival.

?There is so much quality food from the area and many local businesses who promote provenance. This is the perfect chance to let people share and discover more about the great taste of our regional foods,? said one of the organisers, Sally Dickinson of What?s Cooking, in Cornmarket, Thame.

As well as producer stalls, there will be street entertainment, children?s cookery workshops, chef demonstrations, food sampling, plus real ale tastings. Thame Cinema 4 All will be showing a film specially to celebrate the occasion.

Thame Food Festival is encouraging contact from anyone who might like to have a stall and would welcome sponsorship support from local businesses.

So, take a look at the new website www.thamefoodfestival.org.uk
and feel free to get in touch to be involved in this great, local initiative.