Category: More News

ON a day that saw Oxfordshire County Council agree to launch a public consultation on its plans to close 44 Children’s Centres, Thame Town Cllr Mary Stiles has spoken about her fears that the service for young people and their families remaining would just end up ‘fire fighting’ and costing a lot more in the longer term.

Cllr Mary Stiles joined the Save Oxon’s Children Centres protest group last Tuesday outside County Hall and has said that she would have been there today for the county council’s Cabinet meeting if she had not been going away on holiday.

Emphasizing that she was speaking in a personal capacity, and not on behalf of Thame Town Council nor in her capacity as the Chair of Thame Red Kite Children’s Centre’s Advisory Group (That group will meet in October and will issue a formal response then), Mrs Stiles told Thame.Net:

“I believe that Children’s Centres provide a vital service for babies, young children and their families. To cut them is very short-sighted, because prevention is always better than cure. Everyone knows that the government is not funding local government adequately and that savings have to be made, but all of the proposals would mean the end of the fantastic service provided at present.”

During the debate this afternoon, County Cllr Gill Sanders told the meeting of OCC’s Cabinet that Oxfordshire was facing its ‘Dr Beeching moment,’ before it agreed to consult on the proposal to replace 44 of the county’s Children’s Centres and seven of its early intervention hubs, with eight ‘family support centres’.

Mary Stiles went on to say that to join with Children’s Services to have provision for 0 – 19 year-olds did make sense and would definitely save money. “But for those services to be available only to referred families, would stigmatise those families thus making them hard to reach and would be “fire-fighting”, with no prevention work, thus storing up problems for later – and resulting in a much greater expense to the public purse in the end.

“It is also such a waste of public money to have invested in centres, for them then not to be used for their intended purpose. Rather than closing centres such as we have locally, OCC should be working with local councils and other groups to be creative and find a way to keep up the good work carried out by Children Centre staff – even if for the foreseeable future there is less provision.

“Less is better than none. If you cut something completely, rarely do you get it back. If you keep it going, there will be something to build on in better times.”

The public consultation on Oxfordshire’s proposals, aimed at saving £8 million pounds, will be launched in October.

Opposition to the proposals is running high and an online 38 Degrees petition started by a young, Oxfordshire mother in the past couple of days, already had 3,306 signatures at the time of this posting.

THAME continued to reach out to its earthquake-stricken namesakem the village of Thame, in Namche, in the Solukhumbu District of Nepal, with a Mega Quiz on Saturday, raising over £1,750 towards helping the rebuilding of Thame (pronounced Tam-ay) particularly focusing on the school.

Filling the Thame Leisure Centre, 19 teams of eight, that’s 152 people, answered questions posed by three of Thame’s most popular Quizmasters, Sue Boyle, Peter Lambert and Brian West, on subjects as diverse as Geography, Sports News and Current Affairs, Music with a ‘mountain’ connection in the title, and a Heads and Tails ‘true’ or ‘false’ round of facts about Nepal. Who knew that Nepal is the world capital for growing mustard?

The winning team was The Brass Monkeys. Their prize was a bottle of wine each, donated by Waitrose of Thame, who also provided a bottle of Champagne for the winner of the Nepal themed ‘heads’ and ‘tails’, true or false round. Other prizes were equally generously donated by Biagio, Kismet, Brothers, The Cutting Rooms, Bizzie Lizzie, Jeannette Matelot Green, Dani Dennington, Raquets Fitness Centre, Thame Players, Thame Arts and Literature Festival, Snowline, Two Wheels, Greens Furnishings, Top Sport, The Thatch, The Rising Sun, Fore Golf, XT Brewery, the Thame Leisure Centre and The Cross Keys.

At the end of the evening, the Thame giant ‘sherpa’ scarf, all 108 metres of it (as featured at Thame Carnival in June – Guess the length of the giant scarf, and at Towersey Festival recently – Guess the weight of the giant scarf),  was unravelled, picked up and held in a long line by all of the quizzers in a symbolic gesture of unity with our Thame, Nepal friends, shouting out their good wishes to the people of Thame in Nepal in their own language, with a rousing “Tashi dalek!”

The resulting short video will be published as a message to the villagers of Thame, in Nepal, carrying with it the warmth, love and good wishes that resounded around the hall on Saturday night, from one more fortunate Thame to the other less so – a community that will need help and support to rebuild itself for many months to come.

You can support, follow news and updates from, the Community group, ‘Thame to Thame’ on its facebook page: LINK HERE

THAMES Valley Police is appealing for witnesses to a fatal collision in Haddenham yesterday (10/11), involving a woman in a wheelchair and a camper van.

The collision happened in Stanbridge Road at 1.50pm and involved a red VW camper van which collided with two pedestrians, a 52-year-old woman who was pushing a 69-year-old woman in a wheelchair.

The 69-year-old woman was taken to Stoke Mandeville Hospital where she died later that day .

The 52-year-old woman sustained broken bones and was taken to Stoke Mandeville Hospital where she is currently being treated.

PC Alan Turnbull, from the Serious Collision Investigation Unit in Bicester, said: “I would like to hear from anyone who witnessed the collision, or saw the camper van before it happened.

“Anyone with information should call 24-hour Thames Valley Police enquiry centre on 101 quoting URN 701 10/09.

“If you do not want to speak directly to the police you can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers (opens new window) anonymously on 0800 555 111. No personal details are taken, information is not traced or recorded and you will not go to court.

THAME’S Masonic Hall, the headquarters of the Hampden Lodge, 14, at High Street, is opening its doors to the people of Thame, offering a rare and unique opportunity to go and have a look around the hall and to find out a bit more about Freemasonry.

Members of the Hampden Lodge will be present on September 26, to answer any questions visitors may have, as well as showing them around the Lodge’s temple.

Mason, Mark Butler, explained: “Maybe you are interested in joining the Freemasons and would like to chat to an existing member first? Or maybe you have a family member who was a Freemason and you would like to see a bit more of what it’s all about? Or maybe you would just like to take this opportunity to look inside one of Thame’s interesting buildings?

“Either way, you will be made to feel very welcome. So save the date and come along and say ‘hello’ on the September 26, between 10am and 3pm.”

Find out more about Freemasonry by visiting the website: http://www.oxfordshirefreemasons.org.uk/

SEVEN homes in the Howland Road area iin thame, had to be evacuated this morning because of, what police described as ‘a significant’ gas leak, after a gas mains pipe was damaged by, what the Gas Network, SGN described as ‘a third party’.

The company said that it was alerted at 9.10am, and police and the fire service were called an hour later.

Roads in the area were closed and the seven properties evacuated as a precaution. One the leak was stopped, the road re-opend at around 11am.

ONE of the greatest war plays ever written opened on Tuesday this week at The Players Theatre in Nelson Street, Thame. The play, Journey’s End, written in 1928 by English playwright R C Sherriff, is set in the trenches near St-Quentin, Aisne in the days building up to the major German offensive of March 21, 1918. This offensive was intended to separate the British and French Armies, push the British back to the sea, and seize the Channel Ports.

Collaborating with this production is Thame Remembers, a charity set up to commemorate the centenary of World War One by researching all the names on Thame War Memorials, for all conflicts, and discover more about their lives. Thame Remembers, which was set up with Heritage Lottery Funding in 2014, aims to identify the location of each grave or memorial and place a ‘Thame Remembers’ cross on each resting place, wherever in the world that may be.

There is a close link between the timing of the play and the lives of men from Thame who were caught up in the conflict at the time. As Mike Dyer of Thame Remembers explained: “Journey’s End is set in the days before the start of the German offensive of March 21, 1918. Just two days after it began, on March 23, two men from Thame, both members of the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars, lost their lives in the fighting at St Quentin.

“Sergeant Hugh Kidman was an ex-pupil at Lord Williams’s Grammar School and worked on his parents’ farm at Waterstock. He was reported wounded and missing on March 23, and died seven days later, aged 28, in a German field hospital. He is buried in the military cemetery at Maubeuge in France. Corporal Ralph Line, the son of a butcher, lived at 24 Upper High Street, Thame, working as a warehouseman at Pursers in Thame. He married Sarah Humphris at St Mary’s Church in November 1917, aged 30, but was killed in action on March 23, 1918. He is buried at Chauny Communal Cemetery, Aisne, France.

“Both men will be commemorated by the laying of a cross at their graves during the Thame Remembers project.”

Members of the cast in the Thame Players’ production have their own family memories of those caught up in the First World War. Mike Rochford, who plays 2nd Lieutenant Trotter, recalled: “Both my grandfathers fought in the First World War. My maternal grandfather was a radio operator on a minesweeper, taking part in the Battle of Jutland. My paternal grandfather was a fighter pilot who was shot down and captured. Happily, both survived the war. The most illustrious Rochford was my great uncle, Squadron Leader Leonard Henry (‘Tich’) Rochford, DSC & Bar and DFC. He attempted joining up at the start of the war but was rejected as too young. So he obtained a pilot’s licence and joined the Royal Naval Air Service once he was old enough. He was credited with downing 29 enemy aircraft, placing him in the top 15 of British Aces. He survived the First World War and signed up again in the Second World War, when he was stationed at RAF Halton.’”
Adam Hurst, who plays 2nd Lieutenant Hibbert, also has a story to tell: “The story, long held in our family, is that I owe my life to a can of corned beef. My grandfather, Henry Hurst, served in the First World War and was in the front line in the trenches. One morning, he and four of his comrades were in the trenches keeping watch. As my grandfather bent down to pick up and open a tin of corned beef, a stray shell from the Germans landed in the trench. All his fellow soldiers were killed, but he survived with just a few minor scratches.”

Journey’s End continues at The Players Theatre until Saturday, September 12. Tickets cost £9, concessions £8 and are available from Spear Travels, Greyhound Walk, Thame, telephone 01844 217228 or from our website www.thameplayers.co.uk (booking fee applies).

OXFORDSHIRE councils have joined forces with other public bodies to asks the Government to consider a £4bn deal to give them greater local control over funding for transport, skills training and health services.

The six Oxfordshire councils, the Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership and Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group jointly submitted the expression of interest, which was also endorsed by the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University.

It was submitted in response to a call by government for local areas to propose new ways of working that will increase economic growth and improve services for residents. In return, the Government is prepared to devolve power and funding to local areas as has already happened in greater Manchester.

Read more HERE

LAST Saturday (Sept 5) saw a group of children from Long Crendon and surrounding villages collect their smart new ‘Farm Shop Helper’ tee shirts from Long Crendon-based Bucksum Farm Shop. The keen shop assistants had visited the farm Shop throughout the summer learning to use the scales and the till, to weigh and ring up their parents’ shopping. Having collected seven stamps on their Farm Shop Helper cards, they gathered together to collect their rewards and celebrate a fun summer.

Asked why they liked the shop the children unanimously replied that ‘it’s fun’. “Four year-old Esme has loved coming to Bucksum to do the till,” said mum Florence Miller. It helped me be more organized about my veg shopping too! “

We think it’s important to keep children involved with their food and to make food shopping a fun and interactive experience,” said shop manager Tracy, who joined partner David full-time on the farm in December last year. “It’s also really improved the kids’ maths skills, and as someone who always found maths hard, I think that has been a real bonus.” she concluded.

SOURCE: Contributed

THE latest report from Thame’s Neighbourhood Policing team is now available and includes security advise following, what the police are calling, ‘a surge’ in thefts from sheds and outbuildings in Thame and the surrounding areas, and news of other offenders brought to justice. These include a local woman who was identified by the Thame Neighbourhood Policing Team after a non-payment of £100 worth of diesel. As a result she will receive a police record and has been made to re-attend the garage to apologise and make payment.

A 21 year old local man was charged with handling stolen goods after an incident involving a stolen handbag. Anti Social Behaviour among groups of young people congregating at Southern Road Recreation ground, is continuing though reduced recently, according to the report, and officers continue to challenge under age drinkers and seize alcohol when it is seen.

Parents are being advised that with the summer holidays coming to an end, and children possibly travelling to school without an adult, they should ensure that young people are educated in road and stranger safety. The whole report is available to read here: LINK and includes dates and venues for ‘Have you say’ meetings with local Police Community Support Officers in and around Thame.

The good news is that Edward the Emu has been found safe and sound! After taking a stroll out of his usual pen near Wheatley, Edward was found wandering in a neighbouring field a few days after he went missing. Edward’s escapade evoked a flurry of interest on social media. Edward’s owners are said to be very pleased he is back.

AN acclaimed artist has been commissioned by a property developer to create a stunning piece of public artwork to complement a £14.5 million industrial and warehouse development in Thame.

Claude Heath, a former artist in residence at the Henry Moore Institute and a prizewinner in the John Moores Exhibition, has been selected to produce an eye-catching sculpture for the heart of Cotmore Park, in Thame (opposite the DAF site).

The piece of sculpure, entitled Colour Spaces, will be around three metres high and will be launched at the Thame Show on September 17, at The Thame Showground, Kingsley Road, where visitors will have the chance to speak to Claude about his ideas and see some of the concepts put forward by the award-winning artist.

The work has been commissioned by Commercial Property Developer, Stoford, which is leading the Cotmore Park development, in collaboration with Public Artist Limited – an independent art consultancy – with high quality print company Windles Group, and Groves, the UK’s leading distributor of haberdashery, who are moving into the development.

The development itself, which will comprise of two high specification, low carbon, energy-efficient buildings, is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Meanwhile, Claude, who was chosen to create the art following a selection process, will produce the final design by the end of the month. He will start work on creating the piece over the winter, with the aim of installing it in spring 2016.

Jon Andrews, director of Public Artist Ltd, said: “Claude stood out as an innovative artist who came up with some incredible ideas for the space and we are very excited to be working with him. Colour Spaces will be a fantastic addition to the development. We’re thrilled that Claude will be joining us at the Thame Show next week and are looking forward to discussing the project with visitors.”

Claude Heath said Colour Spaces is likely to be an aluminium structure and a painted colour spectrum. “If each colour has a height, width, and depth, then you can imagine that all the colours in a picture, for example, will combine to form a colour space, a spatial field of colour that contains all of them,” he said.

“It is also possible to take one further step, imaginatively speaking, taking a colour space and giving it a solid form, as a painted sculpture that will stand on the grass beside an Oxfordshire byway, a spectrum in tangible shape to act as a beacon and conductor of colour in its surroundings.

”Lizzie Spokes, community project officer of Thame Town Council, which worked with Stoford, Public Artist Ltd, Windles Group and Groves to select an artist for the project, added: “Thame Town Council supports a policy of art in the public realm, which can enhance our experience of the environment. Claude’s design will create a distinctive, engaging landmark within the town that will enhance the visual impact of the new developments. We are looking forward to seeing the final design and the installation next spring.”