Category: Thame news

THE following is the latest report from the Thame, Chinnor and Watlington NAG – Neighbourhood Action Group:

Active enforcement and a PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers) Patrol Plan have been very effective in reducing the number of reports about antisocial behaviour in Thame town centre.

LITTER (The second priority area of concern identified by the community after antisocial behaviour) – Although the PCSOs now have the power to ticket for such offences, enforcement and education are an ongoing challenge. A local fast food outlet has agreed to make more effort to look after the area around the shop and the Town Council is working with other partners to organise an anti-litter campaign.

For the Chinnor neighbourhood area, including Aston Rowant, Crowell, Sydenham, Tetsworth and Towersey, the report states the following:

SPEEDING (top priority concern) – Some enforcement with prosecutions has taken place on the B4009. A bid for a hand held laser gun is being processed and the decision should be known soon. A further enforcement plan is being put in place with other agencies.

Aston Rowant Parish Council has achieved the installation of three, visually activated 30mph speed signs on the B4009, covering Aston Rowant and Kingston Blount (West) – these should be in place by the end of November.

PARKING (second priority, High Street, Chinnor) – Following a number of suggestions and site considerations in Chinnor, there does not seem to be any action that can be taken by the NAG to improve the parking problems beyond what the Parish Council has already achieved.

DOG FOULING – (Tetworth village green) The NAG is working with Tetsworth Parish Councillors to try and find a solution to the problem. Dealing with this issue across the whole Thame NAG area has been helped with the police now able to issue fixed penalty notices for offences.

HUNDREDS of people gathered together on Sunday, to remember all those who died fighting in the Great War of 1914-18 and all the conflicts since, including that currently being waged in Afghanistan.

In the minute’s silence that followed a lone trumpeter playing the last post, the only sound to be heard, ironically, was the distant gun fire of a local game bird shoot.

All the emergency services, young people’s groups, local authorities and most of the local clubs and organisations were represented in the wreath laying, and included the Mayor of Thame, Jeannette Matelot Green and Thame’s MP, John Howell.

The Rev Derick Chambers, conducting his last Remembrance Day service in Thame before he moves on to another pastership, told those assembled: “We cannot help but grieve over the loss of so mamy lives by war.”

“In one sense,” he continued, “war is a product of failure. War emerges as a spectre which hovers over the human race when nations, cultures or ideologies fail to agree, compromise or negotiate. It was Winston Churchill who said, “rather jaw, jaw, than war, war.”

“War is a product of failure of the human race to love each other at any level and every level. It is the antithesis of the greatest of Jesus’s teachings, ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.’ (John 15 v 13)

“But how can a man stand idly by and watch, as all the ideals he believes in, his loved ones and the concept of freedom itself, be destroyed by some deliberate act of violence? And therein lies the essence of conflict. The idealist will defend liberty and freedom, however abhorrent the taking up of arms is to him. However unnatural it is for him, he will give his life for a cause worth believing in.

“Times change,” he went on. “At Loos, in Belgium, 95 years ago this year, the British Expeditionary Force faced the invading German Army. On the first day of battle, 60,000 British soldiers were killed. Many remain unidentified from that day to this, and lie in war cemeteries alongside their fallen comrades. In Afghanistan, over the last eight years, over 200 British lives have been lost. This is not a war of the unknown warrior. Every name is known, every family is informed, and we who witness the procession home of another brave warrior, grieve alongside them too, for they are our son or daughter, our brother or sister.

The Rev Chambers concluded: “We are part of this world as Christ himself is part of this world. Jesus, who came amongst the oppressed, the suffering and the grieving. Jesus, who looked upon humanity with compassion but whose gaze never left the kingdom of heaven, commanded us to love one another, just as he did, until the day comes when we can live together as one human race and the spectre of war will be no more. Amen.”

09/11/09

THE police are appealing for witnesses after a Poppy Appeal collection box was stolen in Thame, ten days ago.

The collection box was stolen by a boy from the library in Southern Road, Thame, at around 12.10pm on 27 October, 2009. He made off down Southern Road, towards Elm Park.

The boy is white, around 15 years old, 5ft 5ins, slim, with short, dark hair. He has a spotty complexion and was wearing a dark blue, hooded tracksuit top, with black and white stripes going up one sleeve, across the back, and back down the other sleeve and black jogging bottoms.

PC Roy Fuller, investigating the incident, said: “We don?t know how much the box contained but it was approximately a quarter full with contributions.

“I would like to make a direct appeal to whoever has done this, to take responsibility for their actions and return the box.

“Such behaviour will not be tolerated and we are doing all that we can to catch whoever is responsible.”

Anyone with information which could help the police should contact PC Roy Fuller at Oxford police station via 0845 8 505 505, or if you don?t want to talk to the police or give your name, call the Crimestoppers charity on 0800 555 111.

SAJU Miah, who went missing from the hospital on Wednesday (4/11/09, has now returned.

THAME YOUTH Theatre’s birthday bash on Sunday (01/11/09), which brought together ex members who have since gone on to become famous in their field, and aspiring young members of today, was a testament to the group’s inspiring founders and Thame’s young people.

Professionals like Stand-up, guitarist-song writer, Rob Deering (Out to Lunch BBC Radio 2, 99 Things to Do Before You Die on Channel 5, and winner of a celebrity special The Weakest Link), Sassy Clyde (Oxbridge Fringe Stand up, actress, Pringles advert) and the currently on-the-rise, Boom Jennies (Edinburgh Fringe etc) were among the Thame Youth Theatre Vets who took the time out of their busy schedules to return to Thame to celebrate their theatrical beginnings and to play homage to Chris Walters, Sarah Hayes and the other founders.

Chris told ThameNews.Net: “Last Sunday was, in my own humble opinion at least, a total triumph. Not only did it give so many old friends and companions the chance to meet up again – so many told me how they suddenly felt the years rolling away, to be back in Lower School Hall once again – but the cabaret itself showed just how much talent has come from Thame, and that the tap seems to keep flowing, with the new crop of Youth Theatre mixing seemlessly with the old crew. What is more, we raised over

FIVE men and one woman have been charged following an assault in Moor End Lane in Thame on August 15, 2009.

Lisa Cook, aged 34, of Webster Close, Thame has been charged with common assault.

Stuart Pritchard, aged 20, from Marston Road, Thame, Jeffrey Robinson, aged 42, from Webster Close, Thame, Ricky Wilkinson, aged 20, from Hampden Avenue, Thame, David Needham, aged 18, from Brill Road, Oakley and a 17-year-old boy from Thame, have all be charged with Actual Bodily Harm.

They are all due to appear at Oxford Magistrates? Court on 13 November.

The charges are in relation to an incident where a 19-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man sustained injuries during an altercation in the street.

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE PCT’S handling of changes to medical cover at Thame hospital, has been compared to the recently published report into the Nimrod crash.

In the question and answer session at the recent public meeting into the future of Thame Community Hospital, Thame resident, Len Davidson, suggested that the PCT read the review into the destruction of the aircraft as it was re-fuelling in the air above Afghanistan.

The three main causes cited for the tragedy, said Mr Davidson, were change, standardisation and cost cutting. “I suggest,” he added, “that there are some references here that we can all read into what is happening here.”

JOINING UP THE PIECES

Richard Mills, for Bucks PCT, replied: “We take our responsibilities for caring for our patients very seriously. The safety of patients is a priority.
“There are some hard decisions to be made and we must get the balance right. We cannot just buy our way out of things.

“Change is important; we need continuity but there must be a balance. We have to move on from 1948.”

He added, “We do need to change but not in a way that is risky. We cannot compromise on standards and must have checks and balances. In the Nimrod case, no one was joining up the pieces but that is what we are trying to do. If we can simplify and cut out waste, we can save resources.”

TOWN COUNCIL BEHIND THE MOTION

Town Cllr Don Butler said that the town council was fully behind the motion to be put forward at the end of the meeting, i.e. to open the four closed beds, to return medical cover to the the local GPs and to ensure that the new contract provides for at least eight hours of medical cover per week.

He added that he hoped there would be another public meeting once a decision had been made about future medical cover.

CHANGES SHOULD BENEFIT PATIENTS

District Cllr David Dodds, who chaired the meeting asked the PCT representatives which of the main principles of Lord Darzi’s recent review of the Health Service, they thought they had met? i.e. That changes should be consulted about, that those changes should be for the benefit of patients and that those changes should be looked at to see what the benefits are.

“What the PCT has done is ride rough shod over those,” he concluded. Applause from the audience.

Rachael Corser, Executive Leadfor Clinical Excellence, Community Health, replied: “Each change we make is clinically driven and we will continue to work with GPs and staff.”

In bringing the meeting to a close, Sarah Taylor, Chair of the League of Friends of Thame Community Hospital, who called the meeting, thanks all the speakers for their contributions, saying to the PCT representatives, “We will all be scrutinising your comments very carefully and I ask you to bear in mind that in the future, people in hospital will be more ill.”

PHOTO: There was a unanimous show of hands among the audience in support of the motion (See Cllr Don Butler’s contribution above)

ON Saturday, October 31, 2009m at 10am a ginger kitten was hit by a car near 1 Cromwell Avenue.

Shocked but uninjured, the kitten was taken to the Blue Cross by Mr Evans 07704986698.