Category: Thame news

A 24-year-old man has been arrested in North Street, Thame, on suspicion of possessing a class A drug, following an operation with police dog Benson, in Thame and Wheatley.

The man has been released on bail until 23 January.

The Police were out on patrol in Thame and Wheatley on 11 January with passive drugs dog, Benson, in an operation to help crack down on the supply and use of illegal drugs.

The operation was carried out in a number of licensed premises and public spaces.

Sgt Chris Hazell, leading the operation, said: ?We carried out a number of searches at various licensed premises in the area and issued street cautions to four people for the possession of cannabis.

?The licensees of the pubs welcomed the operation and stated it sent out a good message to the public that drugs will not be tolerated in local pubs and that both landlords and the police will continue the fight against it and stamp it out altogether.
?This was not a one-off operation – the dogs were an excellent resource in the help to tackle drug crime and they will be used again in the future.?

If you have any information regarding the supply of drugs, or would like to join the Pubwatch scheme contact Thames Valley Police via the 24-hour non-emergency number 0845 8 505 505. If you do not want to talk to the police you can contact the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Members of the neighbourhood team can be contacted via 0845 8 505 505. For more information about the neighbourhood team, please visit www.thamesvalley.police.uk

THAME and District Day Centre Manager, Gill Coleman, has been kept extra busy during the freeze up, even though the Centre, which meets at Thame Community Hospital, has had to be closed while conditions remained treacherous underfoot.

She made sure that none of her 50 members who have had to stay in their homes has gone short of anything – even a friendly chat.

The Centre provides Day Care on three days a week for elderly or frail people from the town and nearby areas.

Gill said: “I have been phoning all our members regularly; all have food in, and if not, neighbours, family, friends and local teenagers have been contacting them as well, to see if they need shopping or are OK. Many of our members praised their local milkman, Steve for his help.

“I can’t thank the friends and neighbours of our members enough for the way they have watched out for them.”

She added that the phone calls were also helping to counter the sense of isolation which some might have experienced.

PHOTO: Gillian Coleman

A young gymnast from Thame is among 43 Oxfordshire young people to be awarded over

FOLLOWING snowfall overnight (12/13 January), schools and waste collections have once again been effected.

Although all the Thame schools were open first thing this morning, once it began to snow again late morning, the primary schools all gave teachers who live out of Thame the opportunity to leave at lunch time and parents were told that they could collect their children if they wanted to.

Lord Williams’s remained open though some bus companies did collect pupils from out-lying areas earlier.

WASTE COLLECTION

Waste collections were suspended for the day though South Oxfordshire District Council has made a parked vehicle available in the Cattlemarket for excess rubbish for landfill NOT RECYCLING – 8am to 2pm all this week.

PLANS for Thame’s first Literary and Arts Festival (June 25/27) are moving on a pace with some exciting names already lined up for the event in June this year.

As well as Thame’s very own Playwright and Poet, Patrick Collins, who will run a Creative Writing workshop and run a ‘Play in a Day’ workshop, the creator of the popular TV series, Who Do You Think You Are, Nick Barratt will be taking part in the event.

The Senior Archivist at the Oxford Records Office, Carl Boardman will be giving a talk, and on the Friday night, there will be a pub quiz.

Other events incude Meet the author events, Talks, Lectures and discussions, Poetry in the pubs, a Festival Dinner with guest speakers, Art Shows and Installations and TALKids, a programme for young readers.

Thame Literary and Arts Festival (TAL) now has its own website where anyone can sign up for news letters and up-dates to be sent to them:
http://www.talfestival.org/

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses after a distraction burglary in Thame.

Between 5.15pm and 5.55pm a man went to a property in Southern Road and said to the occupant that there was a burst water pipe and he needed to turn the water off.

The man is white, aged in his 20s and was wearing a dark coat and a red baseball cap.

Det Insp Kev Elkins, leading the investigation, said: ?It wasn?t until the man left that the woman noticed that he has stolen some belongings from upstairs, including some jewellery, credit cards and around

THAME was today beginning to return to normal as temperatures rose above freezing for the first time in days.

Some post was delivered for the first time in over a week, as the Post Office apologised for the interruption in deliveries, mostly caused because many areas of the town were just too dangerous for postmen and women to operate in.

Waste collections also started again today, from homes normally collected from on Mondays, although the district council warned that this was only where vehicles could safely get to properties.

All Thame schools were open today for the first time since before Christmas.

Sporting fixtures in the town have been severely effected, including Thame United. All Hellenic League games were postponed from last Saturday, January 9. Chinnor RFC’s First team match against Taunton was unable to be played at the weekend.

Despite a slow thaw, there was still enough snow around at the weekend for snowman building, as this pictures of a snow couple, built by Paul Earley from Thame, shows.

OXFORDSHIRE County Council has announced that it will not now be carrying through with stringent cuts to the county’s youth services.

This policy reversal comes after complaints about the council’s original plans to make savings of around

A COUPLE from Thame who are both wheel-chair bound, today thanked local people who came to their aid during the snowy conditions of the last week.

Byron and Sue Harvey, who live in Wellington Street, Thame, told ThameNews.Net today: “We would like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to all those wonderful people who braved the cold slippery conditions to make sure we had all we need. A lovely couple came and cleared all our paths for us, and we have been inundated by callers to see if we need any shopping.

“Another person offered his 4×4 if we had any appointments or needed to go anywhere urgently, and a lovely couple gave our dogs a good run while we are housebound by the weather.

Sue added: “Byron has always thought that Thame Community is wonderful but this takes the biscuit!! so once again can we say huge ‘Thank you’ to you all. We hope to be able to get out soon.”

PHOTO: Sue and Byron Harvey enjoying the warm, sunny weather of last summer 2009

A THAMENEWS.NET reader today sent in this photograph and the following message:

“I was just reading your story about our current snow cover being the worst for 30 years. Although I was living in Thame at the time and do remember the period, it is difficult to directly compare then (from memory) and now (from looking out of the window).

I found a few photographs that I took at the time and I’ve attached one taken near the town hall. Not the best quality but it might enable a few people to judge whether it really was worse back then.

Stuart Holding

ED. Your comments please.