Category: Thame news

THE following six people have been nominated for the election of two Parish Councillors, on Thursday, July 10, 2008 for the THAME SOUTH WARD.
They are:

Clifford Dennis Baker
25 Coombe Hill Crescent, Thame, Oxon, OX9 2EQ
Conservative

Margaret Dympna Bretherton
33 Towersey Drive, Thame, Oxon, OX9 3NR
Liberal Democrat

Andrew Haydon Gunn
4 Ormond Road, Thame, OX9 3XW
Labour

Hussein Mirza
59 Cromwell Avenue, Thame, OX9 3TT
Liberal Democrats

Mary Honora Stiles
3 Willow Road, Thame, OX9 3BE
Labour

Michael Welply
Beech House, 14 Towersey Road, Thame, OX9 3PE
Conservative

AFTER almost fading away for lack of volunteers, this year’s Thame Festival proved to be a huge success with hundreds of people of all ages taking part in a week of community events.
The highlight of the week was undoubtedly Thame’s first Food Fayre on Friday, which attracted crowds of local people and visitors to experience what some of Thame’s best local food producers and caterers had to offer.
TV celebrity and cookery writer, Sophie Grigson, signed copies of her book and later chatted to the children who entered the vegetable sculpture competition, whilst Anita Sharma James demonstrated how to make pekoras and authentic indian chutney.
Dozens of children queued to learn how to make homemade pasta with Beverley Glock and her team in the upper chamber of the town hall.
Colourful stalls lined the cobbled area around the town hall, including food from india and thailand, as well as goat burgers, breads and homecooked meals to take away. Special guests were friends from Montesson, Thame’s twin town, who were kept busy all evening selling fresh crepes made to order as well as doing a roaring trade in fine French wines.
The foody theme for the festival attracted a train of entries in the carnival procession on Saturday, with Thame Guides and Brownies taking first prize, jointly judged by Radio two presenter, ken Bruce and the Mayor, Don Butler.
In the evening, Thame rocked to the second, open air rock night to be held in the Upper High Street car park.
The young people of Thame did the town proud, both with their extraordinary exhuberance and talent and the good-natured behaviour of those who went to support and listen to the music.
Earlier in the week, on Wednesday (11/06) both the children of Thame and the adults tested their knowledge about food and related subjects in two separate quizes over-seen by the redoubtable Sue Boyle.
Watch out tomorrow for a link to loads of photographs from the week’s festivities.

Photo: The spirit of Thame Festival – A Thame pensioner joins in with the dancing at the Rock festival on Saturday night, in the Upper High Street, Thame.

LIBERAL Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg, visited the festival fete on Saturday, met the voters in Thame town centre again this afternoon, with former Liberal Democrat Leaders, Menzies (Ming) Campbell, Paddy Ashdown and Stephen Kearney, the Liberal Democrat candidate for the Henley by-election.
They strolled along the Buttermarket followed by a posse of cameramen, tv cameras and reporters, going into local shops and chatting with voters as they went.
Paddy Ashdown spoke to ThameNews.Net and re-itterated the message that his party intends to fight all the way against their main opponents, the Conservatives, and Stephen Kearney added that his party really feels that the outcome of this battle for the Henley Constituency is by no means the foregone conclusion that people were talking about at the beginning of the campaign.

THIS is the latest update provided by Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) Diane Greenwood:
The Thame neighbourhood policing team and licensing officers set up a successful operation in May, in which local pubs and shops selling alcohol were tested to check they were not selling to under 18s. This operation produced mixed results with five out of eleven premises being caught breaking the law. On each occasion the member of staff who served the youths was issued with an

SHADOW Environment Secretary, Peter Ainsworth today joined local campaigner and Conservative candidate John Howell in Thame, to meet victims of the recent flooding.
They met residents in Cedar Crescent who were evacuated from their home as a result of their property being flooded.
Local campaigner and Conservative candidate John Howell, said:
?My heart goes out to people we met this morning who have had to move out of their homes due to the recent floods. Many of them won’t be able to return for months. We can’t underestimate how distressing this situation is for them?.

A verdict of Accidental death has been recorded after an inquest into the death of a Thame motorcyclist.
Francis Inceman, known as Mick, of Seven Acres, Thame, died after he lost control of his green Kawasaki motorbike and collided with a van at a bend on the Ford Road, Haddenham on February 26.

According to a report from Consultant Pathologist, Dr Mavis Mayers, 42 year-old Mick, who was due to be married this summer, suffered a fractured skull in the accident.
Cyclist, Martin Davies, who witnessed the crash, told the inquest: “He was coming towards me. The back of the bike was wobbling like he had hit ice, but there wasn’t any ice. It was two or three seconds before he hit the van.”
He added: “I went over to him and could see blood pouring out of his nose. I knew he was dead.”

The driver of the Renault van, Derek Dennis, said: “He was approaching the sharpest part of the bend as though he was trying to scrub speed to slow down.
“The back end of the bike was out of control. He was swerving as though he was trying to straighten it up. It went the other way and he over corrected it the other way.
“I was actually running with the near side wheels on the verge waiting to see where he was going to go. It went on to the bike’s nearside and he collided with the side of the vehicle.”

PC Adrian White, a collision investigator, told the inquest that Mr Inceman may have hit a groove in the road causing him to stray on to the opposite carriageway or he may have been travelling over the speed limit, but that neither could be established.

In a statement, Mick’s family said: ?We would like to thank everyone who stopped and tried to help him after his tragic accident, including the lady who didn?t wait to give a statement.
“We would also like to thank the team at Aylesbury police station, who have been very supportive and helpful, especially PC Holt, who has helped us through the last four months with tireless enthusiasm and endless compassion.
?Mick was a very experienced motorbike rider, having ridden a bike for 25 years. His bike was his only mode of transport so he rode it every day to work and at the weekends for pleasure. Last year he took four months off and rode to India, an adventure we are today so pleased that he decided to do then and did not put off.
?Although we do understand he had a very powerful motorbike with the potential for high speeds, we are also aware of non-bikers? perceptions and misguided attitudes, that all bikers ride too fast and are reckless.
?A motorbike with the engine size of Mick?s always make a very loud noise and with acceleration or deceleration this gets even louder. Most of the time this is a good way to warn other road users that a motorbike is near them.
?In this instance it seems that something made Mick lose control of his bike and have this tragic accident. The very saddest part of all is that the only person who really knows what happened can?t be here to tell us. For the rest of our lives we will always wonder. The light has gone out of our lives and we are doing our best to rebuild our lives without our son, dad, granddad and fianc

ON the eve of a four-day strike by 500 tanker drivers contracted to Shell, the manager of the Thame Shell station has warned drivers not to panic buy.
Tony Hallan, who manages the petrol station in Park Street, Thame, has said that as long as the tanks are
full or three-quarters full this evening, there will be enough to see them through the strike as long as motorist do not start to panic buy.

THE mystery of the sports car driver, seen on the roads around Thame with a full-size coffin standing up on-end in his back seat, has been solved.
The Monster Raving Loony Party is the latest organisation to throw its hat in the ring to find a replacement for Boris Johnson.
Ten candidates, including The Banana Man, aca ‘Topcat’ from the ‘Loonies’ and a British National Party representative, are now in the race to become Thame’s new MP in the by-election to be held on June 26.

At midday today, the nominated candidates were: John Allpass from Marlow (English Democrat), The Banana Man from Reading (Monster Raving Loony Party), Louise Anne Cole from Fulham (Ind), Amanda Harrington from Liverpool (Ind), John Michael Howell from Warborough (Con), Stephen Andrew Kearney from Aston Rowant (Lib Dem), Richard Mark McKenzie from Reading (Lab), Timothy Sylvester Rait from Haslemere (British National Party), Richard Rogers from Birmingham (Common Ground) and Mark Christopher Stevenson from Dorchester (Green).

The Henley constituency had a Conservative majority of almost 13,000 at the last General election.

THAME Town Council, which has struggled to decide how to persuade businesses to contribute towards the CCTV cameras, has received a bill for

THAME continues to attract political heavyweights in what looks like being a battle between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems in the run up to the by- election to replace Boris Johnson.
This morning it was ex Conservative leader, now Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague who chatted with stallholders and shoppers at the Farmers’ market, after visitiing Lord Williams’s school this morning.
William Hague agreed that there was a lot at stake for both the Lib Dem and the Conservative leaders in the result of this election, and when it was suggested that a Conservative win was inevitable, he replied: “I don’t believe that there is any such thing as ‘a safe seat;’ we are taking nothing, nor anyone, for granted.”
Of his candidate, John Howell, Mr Hague said that he deserved to win because he is “steeped in local issues” having been involved in the county council, which, he added, gave a candidate an excellent start and if selected, he would be able to “hit the ground running” when he entered Parliament.
John Howell himself chatted to stall-holders and, tasting some of the wares on the Baker’s Basket, Long Crendon, stall, joked that he was trying to lose some weight.