Category: Thame news

A POLICE operation at the Welcome Break Service Station last week, nabbed one third of the the drivers pulled over for offences.
As part of an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) operation, vehicles were pulled over by Officers from the neighbourhood policing team at Thame and the Roads Policing Department worked together on the operation between 12pm and 4pm.

The ANPR camera was inside a vehicle parked at the Welcome Break Service Station.

During the four-hour period, 32 vehicles were pulled over and 22 drivers were asked to verify their details. Four people were searched and a man received a street caution for cannabis. A car was seized because the driver had no insurance and five people were given

THAME Town Council has decided to get tough with the Showman’s Guild, which runs the fun fair that comes to the town every September.
The council has agreed that the Guild must pay up for the extra costs of organising security, medical cover, safety measures etc, or agree to a new regime where each stall or ride pays individually for the privilege of coming to Thame, as happens between Oxford City and St Giles fair.

In September last year (2008) the town council took over the responsibility for the running and managing of the fair, as its legal responsibility, incurring extra cost to the council and therefore to the rate payers of Thame.

A five year agreement between the council and the Guild comes to end in September, before the start of this year’s fairs and a new agreement about who is responsible for what, is currently being negotiated.

Photo: Copyright Iain Fairweather

THAME Town Council will go ahead with a public meeting and a questionaire to determine what form a permanent memorial to the lost youth of Thame should take.
This is despite a comment by the Mayor, Don Butler, that the council itself should decide and not the young people themselves, a position supported by Cllr Beatrice Dobie.

A Youth Memorial Working Group of town councillors presented a progress report on Tuesday to the Culture Leisure and Recreation committee, outlining design considerations for the proposed memorial and a questionaire which includes preferences for the use of epetaphs.

The idea for a Memorial to the young people of Thame who have died, often in tragic circumstances, came from a local resident who was so impressed by the length of time and care taken in maintaining the tribute to Chloe Owens near the Aylesbury round-about where she was killed three years ago.

He suggested that the council provide a place of reflection and contemplation for the friends and families of those young people who have died.

The town council agreed that the triangular piece of land on the end of the Memorial Gardens could be used for such a purpose.

A public meeting to help move the project forward will be held on February 21st (not January 31 as originally reported), in the Upper Chamber, between 10am and 12 pm.

(Image courtesy of the friends of Cloe Owens, from their memorial video)

POLICE searching for a missing Thame man have found a body in the River Thames today (15/01).

A search was launched yesterday for Keith Manger, aged 42, who was last seen at his home in Cavalier Road, Thame at 1.30pm yesterday (14/1). A body was found by a police search team at 12pm today, in the river near Elizabeth Bridge, Windsor.

Police officers searching the area around Elizabeth Bridge, Windsor, found Mr Manger’s car, a black Ford Focus, last night.

The police believe that the body is that of Mr Manger, but this cannot be confirmed until he is formally identified by a member of his family.

THE Oxfordshire and Thame Show, traditionally held on the third Thursday in September, is to move to a Saturday.
However, contrary to a decision made by the show’s management committee to hold this year’s show on Saturday, September 26, the show’s current Chairman, Andrew Duffy, told ThameNews.Net today, that the show will now be held on Thursday, September 17, 2009, afterall.

Mr Duffy told ThameNews.Net today: “After subsequent soundings of the various sub-committees since the committee’s unanimous decision to hold the show on Saturday, September 26th, it has been decided that the new date would not be appropriate from the point of view of the horse contingent especially, as some very high calible ponies will be involved in the Horse of the Year Show at Olympia around that time.

“It has therefore been decided that, after much soul searching, the show will be moved to a Saturday in 2010, though the exact date has yet to be sorted out.”

Mr Duffy explained that the organisers of the Oxfordshire and County Thame Show, to give it its full name, feel that moving it to a Saturday will bring in more people who don’t have to take time off from work to attend, and more families from further afield.

Last year the show lost around

THIS, the latest neighbourhood update, has been provided by Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Diane Greenwood:

The Thame neighbourhood policing team had a good result of removing abandoned vehicles around Thame town centre and would like to encourage the general public to call their neighbourhood policing team to report these vehicles so they can be sorted as soon as possible, as when the vehicles are left they soon attract anti-social behavior.

In the New Year, the Thame neighbourhood policing team is re-launching a revitalized, Country Watch Scheme across the sector. Farms and agricultural premises will be contacted by local officers, hoping for local farms and businesses to sign up to the scheme. This is a free scheme which is co-ordinated by the police. Members will receive signs which can be displayed in appropriate locations, which will indicate they are members and will also act as a deterrent to any potential criminals.

The team also now has access to the SID (Speed Indication Device) and during 2009, the SID will be used in numerous locations around the Watlington, Chinnor and Thame neighbourhoods on a regular basis. Anyone who breaks the speed limit will have their vehicle details taken and this information will be forwarded to our Roads Policing department. First time offenders will receive a warning letter.

The Thame neighbourhood policing team will be doing regular police surgeries during 2009. These dates are listed below:

PCSO Diane Green ? 14 January in Postcombe from 6pm until 7pm and then on to Stoke Talmage from 7.30pm untio 8.30pm.
PSCO Jacky Madden ? 21 January in Sydenham from 6pm until 7pm and then at Tetsworth from 7.20pm until 8.30pm.
PCSO Rebecca Freeman ? 28 Januaryin Aston Rowant, Kingston Blount and Crowell, starting at 6pm until 10.30pm
PC Mick Goodenough ? 14 January in Chinnor from 6pm until 8pm.
PC Ian Kent ? 17 January in Watlington from 4pm until 6pm
PC Russell Hounslow – January 18 – Thame Police Station 11am to 1pm. Come along and discuss any matters that concern you.

Police surgeries are designed for you to meet your local officers to discuss any concerns or issues within the local community. The above surgeries and future ones will be advertised locally through local parish publications, notice boards and via this newsletter. No appointment is necessary, just turn up and we will be happy to see you!

If you wish to speak with your neighbourhood policing team, contact 0845 8 505 505.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN, individually and globally? What have been the intellectual as well as moral failures?
how do our economic and political systems interplay?

Dr Miguel Mesquita da Cunha, Policy Adviser to the EU President and the NATO Secretary General, has been invited back from Brussels by Lord Williams School to give the key-note speech and act as consultant for the Model United Nations General Assembly at the School on January 21, but will also lead a discussion the previous evening at a meeting organised by the Men?s and Women?s groups based at St Mary?s Church, Thame.

Miguel Mesquita has a particular interest in climate change issues although his most recent work has been around EU strategy issues and the Europe/North America axis, strengths and weaknesses of the EU, security, defence, terrorism, etc.

The meeting will be chaired by Dr Peter Barnett.

Tea and coffee will be available from 7 30pm. All invited. Enquiries to Owen Davies, 01844 214466; davies2399@yahoo.co.uk

Tuesday, January, 20, 7.30- 9.15pm
The Barns Centre, Church Road, Thame

The Credit-or Discredit Crisis
Dr Miguel Mesquita da Cunha will give a retrospective and prospective view and analysis.

BERNIE McDonagh, aged 24, from Middle Ground, Wheatley appeared at Oxford Magistrates? Court on Friday (9/1) charged with causing death while driving without due care and attention, failing to provide a specimen, failing to stop at the scene of a collision, driving while disqualified, driving with no insurance, perverting the course of justice, arson and possession of a class C drug.

McDonagh has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Oxford Crown Court on 16 January.

Ed. The charges relate to a road traffic incident on July 12, between Milton Common and Lewknor, when a white Ford transit van was in collision with a blue Ford Fiesta. Both vehicles ended up down an embankment, where the Fiesta overturned, trapping the three people inside.

Ross Shears, a 29-year-old man from Crowborough, East Sussex, was a passenger in the Ford Fiesta and was pronounced dead at the hospital. His mother remains in hospital with serious injuries.

The van drove from the scene across a field before coming to rest in a ditch. The occupants then ran off.

Photo: The late Ross Shears with he wife, Leah. Ross died after the car he was travelling in on the M40, was in collison with a white van.

FOLLOWING a new appeal recently for witnesses to a fatal crash on the M40 in July last year, a Wheatley man has been charged with causing the death.

The collision happened between Milton Common and Lewknor, when a Ford transit van was in collision with a blue Ford Fiesta. Both vehicles ended up down an embankment, where the Fiesta overturned, trapping the three people inside.

Ross Shears, a 29-year-old man from Crowborough, East Sussex, was a passenger in the Ford Fiesta and was pronounced dead at the hospital. The van drove from the scene across a field before coming to rest in a ditch. The occupants then ran off.

Bernie McDonagh, aged 24, from Middle Ground, Wheatley has been charged with causing death while driving without due care and attention, failing to provide a specimen, failing to stop at the scene of a collision, driving while disqualified, driving with no insurance, perverting the course of justice, arson and possession of a class C drug.

McDonagh has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Oxford Magistrates? Court later today.

Photo: images released by the police of the scene of the crash