Category: Thame news

A MAN has been given three and a half years imprisonment for a knife point robbery inside a shop in Thame.
James Scott, aged 32, of no fixed abode, appeared at Oxford Crown Court last Monday (21/4) where he was sentenced in relation to a robbery that happened on February 15, inside The Chocolate Box news agents in North Street, Thame.

Det Con Arran Cliff, who led the investigation, said: ?On this occasion a woman was threatened by a man wielding a knife. As he ran out of the shop a traffic warden recorded the registration plate of his vehicle and the police were able to make the arrest. The sentence handed down sends a clear message that violent crime will not be tolerated in our area.?

THAMENEWS.NET itself came in for some praise at the annual Town Meeting last Tuesday, when a resident asked if the council had any influence over the local paper’s lack of Thame news content and poor delivery record.
Agreeing that the paper was, “a disaster for news”, ex town and district councillor, Mike Welply complimented ThameNews.Net on its regular coverage of local news and events, and requested that the editor consider including an opinion page expressing the editor’s own views in, what he called, “a more robust manner.”
The local Thame Gazette reporter, who was present at the meeting, said that she “had taken on board” the comments expressed.

Other questions from the floor included:
? A request for more litter bins on Lea Park from Mary Stiles. Cllr David Dodds said that this was a district council matter and informed the meeting that the district council was currently looking at re-cycling litter bins for the town centre.

? The poor quality of the accoustics in the town hall was drawn to the attention of the coucil (as can be vouched for by the Editor and others, who struggle to hear what’s going on during council meetings, especially since it adopted a circular configuration for the tables which means that many councillors have their backs to the public and press seating). The mayor said that the matter was being “dealt with.”

? In answer to a question from Mary Stiles about the decision not to include a Zip wire in the new plans for the Southern Road Recreation area, councillors re-itterated that they had made their decision on “Best Value criteria” and the Clerk added that the new scheme would include “four pieces of new and exciting equipment from France for the over 16s.”

? A resident from Chiltern Vale thanked the council for the new bus shelter at the top of Oxford Road, and asked if the seat could be re-instated at Spring Path. Apparently there is some dispute over whether it is the responsibility of the town, district or county council.

? Following a question from the floor about improving the situation for residents’ parking in the town centre, the town council said that it is now addressing the situation.

? Congratulations were given to the council from Mr Nigel Ayres for a “magnificent job” of work at the re-designing and planting of the Memorial Garden.

? The last question of the evening came from Mary Stiles who wanted clarification as to whether the money taken from the council’s swimming pool fund to buy the museum was a loan or not.
Cllr David Dodds said that, as the money was “for community use,” it was “a legitimate use of the fund.”

AROUND 100 people squeezed into Thame town hall on Tuesday for the annual town meeting, to hear from the leaders of different sectors of the community and hoping to ‘chew the fat’ over local issues.
The Mayor, Cllr David Bretherton presided over the meeting, most of which was taken up with listening to presentations from, in turn, Andrew Duffy, Chairman of Thame Show, Alun Rowe, Chairman of Thame First (formerly the Chamber of Commerce), Peter Butt, Facilitator of the local Neighbourhood Action Group (NAG) and Nigel Champken-Woods, Chairman of the Thame and District Twinning Association. Although the speakers did take some questions after their presentations, less time was set aside at the end for questions from electors to town, district and county councillors, which meant that the meeting ended just as the voters were becoming really engaged in asking the questions they had come to seek answers to.
However, some ‘snippets’ of interest gleaned from the meeting, in no particular order, include the following:

? The Mayor’s Civic Ball last Saturday raised

THE publicans of Thame have today vowed to work together to help stamp out anti-social behaviour in the town associated with drunkeness.
At a re-launch of a Pub Watch scheme, held this afternoon (23/04) in a jam-packed Six Bells, all the pubs represented – about 80% of all those in the town – agreed that no one without either a driving licence or a passport, who looks underage, will be served in any of their pubs.
To keep each other informed about trouble-makers, a cascade system of telephoning to warn each other of troublesome customers is to be set up and photographs of known trouble-makers will be kept by each publican.
Anyone barred from one pub for either drunkeness or drugs, will automatically be barred from every pub in the Pub watch scheme.
A poster campaign will be launched on May 12th throughout the town.
As one, more outspoken landlord said: “If we can get rid of the crap, we can have a nice town.”

Another landlord complimented the police on the speed of their reaction to calls about trouble on Friday and Saturday nights recently in the Upper High Street.

THE Police are appealing for witnesses after a man was bitten by a dog in Chinnor. The man was walking his dog along Station Road, near to the Crown Pub, when a dark, medium sized dog broke free from its owner?s control and ran across the road, dragging its lead behind.
The man picked up his own dog to protect it and the other dog scratched and bit the back of his legs.

The owner of the aggressive dog, a woman, shouted at the man as she crossed the road to collect her dog. The woman is white, aged in her thirties and around 5ft 4ins. She is medium build and spoke with a local accent.

The incident happened at 8.25pm on 14 April.

PC Matt Rantle, investigating the incident, said: ?It is an offence, and irresponsible, for the owner to not be in control of their dog and I am appealing for anyone who may know who this woman is, or have seen this incident happen, to contact me.?

Anyone with any information about the incident can contact PC Rantle at Thame 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.

THE Police are appealing for information following an assault outside the Abingdon Arms Pub in Thame, at 12.30am on April 13.
Two men were outside the pub when they were assaulted by three other men.

One man suffered bruising and the other man suffered a cut to his mouth which required stitches.

Investigating Officer, PC Mark Riding, said: ?This was a very violent assault, resulting in a nasty injury. There were lots of people around at the time and I would like anyone who may have seen this incident to get in touch.?

Anyone with any information is asked to contact PC Riding at Thame 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.

A PUB WATCH scheme is to be launched in Thame in an attempt to reduce alcohol related crime and disorder in the town.
Thames Valley Police, South Oxfordshire District Council and licensees will be officially launching the Pub Watch scheme in Thame on Wednesday (23/4).

Pub Watch aims to reduce disorder and crime by improving communication between licensed premises and the police. Members of a scheme are linked to each other and the police by a pager system which fast tracks information on incidents and likely troublemakers to all those involved. Specially trained crime reduction officers also provide crime reduction advice to pub landlords and staff as part of the scheme.

Community Beat Officer, PC Russell Hounslow, said: ?I am really pleased that all of the licensees in Thame have agreed to take part in the scheme and am looking forward to having greater communication with the landlords in an attempt to combat alcohol related crimes.
?Underage drinking has been identified as a priority by residents in Thame and we are working hard to tackle this issue and hope the Pub Watch will assist.
?The scheme involves the neighbourhood policing team working closely with South Oxfordshire District Council and the licensees in the town to make Thame a safer place to be.?

ALL the electors of Thame are invited to the Annual Town Meeting, to be held tomorrow (22/04, which is one of the few opportunities to air your views and to question representatives from the town, district and county councils, and other sectors of the community.
The meeting will be chaired by the Town Mayor, David Bretherton, and will begin at 7.30pm, in the town hall.
Speakers will include:

Thame Show: Another Hundred Years?
Andrew Duffy, Chairman, Thame Show

Preserving Our Market Town
Alun Rowe, Chairman, Thame First (formerly the Chamber of Commerce)

Snags and NAGs (Neighbourhood Action Groups)
Peter Butt, Facilitator,

Neighbourhood Action Group

Twinning: Can It Survive?
Cllr Nigel Champken-Woods, Chairman, Thame and District Twinning Association

THIS is a Ringmaster message from Thames Valley Police, sent on behalf of Oxfordshire Trading Standards.

Fish sellers are believed to be in the area going door to door cold calling and selling fish.

The sellers are from the Newcastle area and have broad Northern accents.

Trading Standards are interested in their whereabouts. If spotted please call Trading Standards on 0845 051 0845, selecting option 2 and inform them of location and if possible vehicle details, including, make, colour & registration.

Thank you.

THAME town council has promised to be tough with the Showmens Guild, when drawing up a new agreement for the operation of Thame fair.
At an Extraordinary meeting of the full council on Tuesday (15/04), the Clerk, Helen Stewart, warned councillors that all other council business “will have to go on the back burner” as officer time to work on the council’s new responsibilities for the September fair’s smooth running, its policing and safety, will incur considerable costs – costs that will have to be passed on to the fairs itself. This, apparently is how St Giles’ fair in Oxford and others are run.

Because of the recent Review of Fairground Safety (2001) legislation, the town council has to now take full responsibility for ‘best practice’ as layed out by the Health and Safety Commission, and will have to employ 16 Security Officers, and council officers will have to be present the whole time the fair is operating.

Some fairground ride operators have apparently been known to use spray paint to falsify the agreed placement lines of their equipment or to move their rides once the fire service, which is the enforcement body and advises where the rides should go, have gone. Others have pushed to the legal limit the size and weight of their attractions for a town centre location.

Cllr Rob Parker said: “All this puts us in a high risk situation. If anthing goes wrong, it will be our responsibility.”

“We will have to be tough,” said the Clerk, “or we will be opening ourselves up for claims and problems. But if we don’t take this responsibility, the fair won’t happen!”

A new agreement between the Showmen’s Guild and the Town Council must be in place before the September fair, 2009.

Photo: Thame’s Town Clerk, Helen stewart