Category: Thame news

THAME Youth Memorial Trust, whose recent quiz night raised over

THE builders of Thame’s new, two floor library in North Street, are now concentrating on the interior of after almost completing work on its shell.

The 40-week programme by Oxfordshire County Council is on schedule and the modern style library is expected to be open to the public in the summer.

Plans on show

Plans and information about the new building are currently on display at the existing library in Southern Road, which will be open until about a week before the new one opens. Hundreds of new books have been ordered giving residents a wider range of items to borrow than previously.

Open for longer

Library users in Thame will have four extra hours a week to use their new facility as it will be open throughout the day, rather than currently when the existing library whic is currently closed for an hour on weekday lunchtimes. The new library’s opening hours will be 9.30am to 5.30pm on weekdays, except Wednesdays when it will be closed, and Thursdays when it will open at 9am and not shut until 7pm, and 9.30am to 4.30pm on Saturdays.

The

ANYONE with concerns or questions abour community safety is invited to the South Oxfordshire Community Safety Partnership’s safer communities evening at Thame Barns Centre, between 6:00pm and 7:30pm on Tuesday, March 30, 2010.

The South Oxfordshire Community Safety Partnership (CSP) brings together partners to jointly identify community safety issues and to work together to tackle them. Members include the Police and Police Authority, South Oxfordshire District Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service, the Oxfordshire NHS Primary Care Trust and Thames Valley Probation Service.

The CSP is holding a public meeting in Thame to explain about its work and to help it to understand the concerns of the community. You are invited to join them to speak to members of the partnership and to learn about their work in the district.

There will also be an opportunity to receive crime prevention and fire safety advice.

AS the result of a competition to find a name for the site of the new Thame football facility on Church Farm, Thame, the community sports village, as it is to be called, is to be Christened Meadow View Park.

Greg Duncan from Ashendon came up with the winning name and will be the lucky recipient of a Xbox360 and will be invited to the grand opening of the site in the Autumn 2010.

The new facility will be the home of Thame United and Thame Boys, Youth and Girls FC, with a total of 26 teams playing youth and senior football next season.

Thame Football Partnership’s Frank Thompson commented: “We would like to thank all of those that took time to enter the competition.”

Historic associations

“It was interesting to see,” continued Frank, “that there are some really historic links to the site with the fact that Thame Mill was nearby and that the new facility is in an area called Barley Hill Fields, and the old Cotmoor Well. We also believe that there was an old toll booth along the A418 Aylesbury Road area but we felt that Meadow View Park summed up exactly what you will see at the site.”

The Buckingham Group has been awarded the contract to build the

THAME is rapidly running out of space in St Mary’s churchyard to bury its dead, because the rate of the townsfolk dying off has exceeded what was anticipated.

So said the Town Clerk, Helen Stewart, at a meeting of Thame Town Council on Tuesday, March 16, 2010.

Because of the probable future growth of Thame, with the possible addition of 850 more houses between now and 2026, Thame Town Council, which has a statutory responsibility to provide burial space, has agreed to carryout an investigation, including ground water levels, to see if the land at Priest End would be suitable. If utilities are found in the area, it will be impossible to proceed.

The 13,000 square metre area of land is currently used for allotments and if Change of Use planning permission is granted, it would provide 200 burial spaces.

What happens when they are filled, the town council admits, could be problematic.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Sacred Places, flickr

SOUTH Oxfordshire District Council has today announced that it will delay consideration of its Core Strategy for future house building, until after the impending general election.

The core strategy sets out where major housing development will go in the district up to 2026, including Thame which has been provisionally identified for 850 new homes.

In a statement today, SODC said: “The proposals that the council has consulted on have generated significant debate, particularly in Wallingford and Thame.

“It is a general principle, enshrined in the Local Government Act 1986, that councils do not consider controversial issues, with the inherent publicity that they generate, in the period immediately prior to elections.”

The council?s cabinet was due to discuss the local development framework at its meeting on the April 08, just four weeks before the most likely date for the general election. The council?s chief executive, who is also acting returning officer for the two parliamentary constituencies affected by the core strategy proposals, Henley and Wantage, has therefore decided to delay consideration until a later date.

Chief executive of South Oxfordshire District Council, David Buckle said:

?It has become increasingly obvious to me that some of the proposals in the core strategy will become election issues. I cannot stop that but I can avoid fuelling the fires by delaying consideration of the document until after the general election. When that will be is still open to speculation although 6 May seems very likely. If it is 6 May then I envisage that the council?s cabinet will meet in June to make its final decisions.?

PHOTO; Thame people inspect proposed plans for a large housing estate on the other side of Thame by-pass, at a recent exhibition at Thame town hall.

THAME United player, Stuart Barr, has recently returned from a visit to Thailand where his team helped rebuild the compound around a school for orphans after a torrential storm washed it away earlier in the year.

Stuart described the trip as follows: “After our 24 hours of travelling, we finally arrived at 7pm in Sanglaburi, Thailand at the Baanunrak Children?s home.
Work started the next morning at 7am until 7pm with two hrs off during the peak of the day as the sun and temperatures often exceeded 40 degrees.

“As the security of the compound over the last year had been a worry for the staff at the orphanage, it was more important we fitted two sets of gates that closed the home off to surrounding villages. This was purely for the children’s safety and in no way did it make it feel like a prison as they have plenty of land for the 150 kids to play football and do their other activities.

“The gates had been made by a local engineer who fabricated them from some old shutters that someone had donated. Fitting a huge set of sliding gates wasn’t even something I had challenged at work at home so it was something I had to put my mind to. As no one had any drawings or even an idea of how they wanted them, it made it even harder, not forgetting the lack of tools.

“The first thing we did was to take a trip into the closest village on some borrowed scooters where we could buy some tools. But even that was a struggle with their limited resources. However we cracked on and managed to get three sets of gates up in eight days and left the compound 100% safe, mission accomplished!

“Not only did we have to do the manual work but we had to train up the some of the older orphans who wanted to become workers, albeit for wage of 120 baht a day (roughly

A man appeared before a court in Aylesbury today, charged with causing the death of a Thame teenager, by dangerous driving.

Greg Stiles, 18, died when his Ford Fiesta was involved in a fatal collition on the A4129 near Kingsey, Thame, on May 17, 2009.

After speaking only to confirm his name, Sammy Edwards, aged 25, was released on bail until April 20, 2010, whe he is due to appear in court again and enter a plea.

Mr Stile’s 17-year-old girlfriend, Abigail Dowdy, was critically injured in the crash which involved three other vehicles.

PHOTO: Greg and Abi

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses after a fatal traffic collision near Wheatley, yesterday, in which a man died. (14/3/10).

At around 4.20am, a silver Clio was travelling on the A40, towards Wheatley from the Oxford, when it collided with the central reservation near Forest Hill.

All four occupants, men aged in their twenties, were taken to the JR2 Hospital. One of them, aged 23, died. The three others remain in a serious condition.

PC Murray McLean said: ?I appeal to anyone who witnessed the collision to contact police immediately.?

The road was closed while accident investigators attended the scene. It was re-opened at around 7.30am.

Anyone with information that could assist police enquiries is urged to contact PC McLean via Thames Valley Police Enquiry Centre on 0845 8 505 505. If you don?t want to speak to the police or leave your name contact the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.

A CAT, found in Coombe Hill Crescent, Thame, is being looked after by a Thame vet in the hope that his owner can be found.

The male cat is unspayed, does not have a microchip and is wearing a red collar. He is pale grey with beige and brown stripes.

The cat was taken to Sprinks and Nash in Wellington Street, Thame, by PCSO Diane Jackson who found him. Call Sprinks and Nash on 01844 217690 if you have any information about the cat’s owner.