THAME’S Mayor, Jeannette Matelot Green, will be showing her artistic side when she exhibits alongside 100 other artists and craftspeople at this year’s Aylesbury Grammar School Art and Craft Fair, on November 21.
Jeannette Matelot Green with her tiger sculpture, at a previous exhibition
The school’s PTA has been staging its impressive display of local arts, raising funds for the school and providing an invaluable showcase for leadling local artists, professional and amateur alike since 1993.
As the promotional material states: “The Fair has gone from strength to strength and in the past few years, has also provided the venue for an innovative and tempting display of local crafts. This year we will also be showcasing the prodigious talent of the AGS sixth form in our special Student Expo.
Last year thousands of pounds were raised for the School as visitors enjoyed the creativity on display. This year, with your support, the event promises to be bigger and better than ever before.”
WITH Halloween fast approaching, the police are reminding people to make sure that they spend their time trick-or-treating responsibly.
Many residents enjoy Halloween and view it as harmless fun, but for others it can be distressing receiving visits from unexpected callers, particularly the elderly and those that live alone.
The neighbourhood police teams in the Thames Valley will be undertaking high-visibility patrols over the Halloween period to deal with any anti-social behaviour. They also work with schools and parents to reduce the incidents of nuisance and criminal damage that can happen at this time of year.
You can download and print a ‘No trick-or-treat’ flyer from the Thames Valley Police website and display it in a window or visit your local station to pick up a copy.
AFTER the recent death of its leader, Ann Ducker, South Oxfordshire District Council has a new leader. Cllr John Cotton is the new leader of South Oxfordshire District Council following a vote at the full council meeting on yesterday, October 16.
District Cllr John Cotton, the new Leader of the SODC Cabinet
Ann Ducker, who served as leader of the council for 11 years, passed away in September after a short illness.
Cllr Cotton has served on the council since 1999 and during that time has served on the Cabinet as the representative for Planning, IT and for Didcot. He was chosen by the ruling Conservative group as their candidate for the leadership on Tuesday, October 14.
He is the councillor for the Sandford ward, which includes Sandford on Thames, Clifton Hampden, Culham and Nuneham Courtenay.
Cllr Cotton said: “I am excited by the job ahead – it’s a real privilege to have been given this opportunity. Filling Ann’s shoes will be difficult, but I will give it my best and I hope – come May next year – that my colleagues in the new cabinet and I will have given everybody in the district cause to say a job well done.”
In recent years, the interests of Didcot were represented on the cabinet by Cllr Ducker, a position that Cllr Cotton also once held. Cllr Cotton has now introduced a cabinet representative for all of the market towns, as well as for parishes within the district.
The new Cabinet Committee for South Oxfordshire District Council is:
Cllr John Cotton – Leader of the Council and cabinet member for Corporate Strategy, Economic Development and Wallingford Cllr Angie Paterson – Deputy Leader of the Council and cabinet member for Planning Policy and Customer Services Cllr Anna Badcock – cabinet member for Housing Cllr David Dodds – cabinet member for Waste and Thame Cllr Will Hall – cabinet member for Finance and Henley Cllr Elizabeth Gillespie – cabinet member for Development Control, Building Control, Grants and Northern Parishes Cllr Bill Service – cabinet member for Leisure and Didcot Cllr Lynn Lloyd – IT, HR, Legal and Democratic Services Cllr Judith Nimmo-Smith – Health, Community Safety and Central Parishes Cllr Robert Simister – Property, Technical Services and Southern Parishes.
SOME residents of Thame are unhappy about what they feel is a lack of publicity prior to an exhibition of a house builder’s plans for over 200 homes on the outskirts of the town. The proposal is for the so-called Site F, in Thame’s Neighbourhood Plan, on the site of the old pig farm in Oxford Road.
Although a leaflet was posted through the door of some residents in the vicinity of the proposed development and an email sent to members of Residents’ Associations in the area, information does not generally seem to have come to the notice of others in the town.
Comments on social media included: “No body I’ve spoken to knew about it. Would definitely have gone.”
“I saw signage about it but only because I was at Town Hall for a meeting yesterday.”
In a statement today, a spokesperson for Bloor Homes said: “We’ve sent out over 1,800 newsletters directly to Thame residents around the site as well as supplying posters and placing an advert in the local paper. We also provided information for members of the residents associations within Thame.”
He added: “The consultation period is still ongoing.”
For those who do not receive the local free paper, or missed the notice on its Letters page and missed the exhibition, but would like to respond to the consultation, a PDF of the leaflet from Bloor Homes is available here: Site F, Thame – Newsletter – Bloor Homes
AUTHOR, Jeffrey Archer, is due to visit Chinnor later in the month, to officially open the first ever charity bookshop supporting the charity, Fight Bladder Cancer.
Jeffrey and Mary Archer – Image courtesy of beyondhall8.blogspot.co.uk/
Jeffry Archer’s wife, Dr Mary Archer, was herself diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2010 and underwent life-saving surgery which resulted in her having to have her bladder removed and a substitute ‘neo-bladder’ being formed out of a piece of her intestine. In the same year, Andrew Winterbottom started up the Fight Bladder Cancer charity in Chinnor, following his own diagnosis of the disease in 2009, when he also had to have his bladder removed to prevent further spread of the cancer.
Andrew explained: “What surprised me at the time of my diagnosis, was that there wasn’t a single charity in the UK dedicated to supporting people affected by bladder cancer. Like most people, I had not heard of bladder cancer before, so I was very surprised to find out that in fact it is the seventh most common cancer there is, has the highest recurrence rate of any cancer and is the most expensive for the NHS to treat.”
Since the charity was formed it has developed a very significant confidential support service for people affected by bladder cancer across the whole country together with a Bladder Cancer Buddy service which links people who live close to each other, so that those who have gone through the treatment can provide one-to-one support for those who are newly diagnosed.
Andrew continued: “We are delighted to get the support of Jeffrey Archer to open our first charity bookshop. The Fight Bladder Cancer charity has grown significantly in a short period by the e fforts of the trustees and volunteer supporters. We are now able to support people affected by bladder cancer right across the country, raise awareness of the causes and symptoms, and help to fund essential medical research.
“Having moved the charity out of the shed at the bottom of my garden into its first small office, we were pleased to be able to use some of the space to open this charity bookshop that will help fund our vital work. Hopefully, this will be the first of many across the country.”
The official opening event will start at 6pm on Friday, October 31, at The Wee Bookshop, 19 Station Road, Chinnor OX39 4PU
Further information about bladder cancer and the activities of the charity can be found at: www.fightbladdercancer.co.uk
THERE are fears that the Route 40 bus that goes from Thame to High Wycombe, may lose its subsidy because not enough people are using it.
Last April, Oxfordshire County County stepped in to subsidise the route from Thame as far as Stokenchurch, when Arriva said the route was not commercially viable. According to a report, 185 people a day use the No 40 bus from Thame, including some sixth form pupils at Lord Williams’s school, people visiting the hospital in Wycombe, and young people who work in High Wycombe who are unable to get to the station.
Some Thame Town Councillors are concerned that information about a public consultation on subsidised bus routes, including the 120, 121, 123 and 124 as well as Line 40, is not reaching people who may not have access to the internet. So the council is going to stick posters about the consultation on all the relevant bus stops in the town.
The current subsidy for Line 40 as far as Stokenchurch, is just short of £113,000 which Oxfordshire County Council, who is looking at areas to make cuts to its budget, has said is not viable.
Cllr Mary Stiles, the town council’s Transport representative, told councillors at a meeting of the Planning and Environment committee last night (14/10): “This service is vital for the town and it’s very important that as many people as possible know about the consultation and let the county council know there feelings about the bus services.”
IT will be 20 years on Saturday (18/10) since Thame Barns Centre first opened its doors as a community-owned venue and to celebrate, a big birthday bash is planned for all those who were involved at the very beginning, in transforming a derelict building.
But the Centre’s Managers needs help in contacting many of those caught up in the original vision, to invite them along.
Karen and Patsy who run the Centre, take up the story. “The Town Council and St Mary’s Church backed the plans. Many people gave up their time to help develop the plans and gave up their weekends to do the building work. It does restore your faith in mankind when you hear about it.
“Twenty years on the Centre is really busy; so many people are benefiting from all the hard work put in back in the 1990’s. Whether it’s for a keep-fit class or a wedding reception, we hope that everyone gets a warm welcome and enjoys using the Centre. We are constantly trying to improve things here, and our latest project is to create a new seating area near the Small Barn, which we are opening as part of our Anniversary Celebrations.
“It’s open house on saturday so we would like anyone who has been involved or enjoyed the Centre to call in on Saturday, from 10.30am to 4pm, for free tea, coffee and cake and take a look around the displays of the transformation of the building and things that take place now. We’ll be serving lunch from 1pm, and there will be speeches at 2.30pm. In the evening visitors can come and take part in (or just listen to) the Sing-a-round, and there will be free snacks and a cash bar.”
THAMES Arts and Literature festival was officially launched on Friday (10/10), with festival Directors, sponsors, supporters and the Mayor of Thame, Jeannette Matelot Green, gathering at Thame Museum, to relish the delights to come of the fifth TAL festival – and the tasty nibbles provided by Chinnor caterer, Caroline Jones.
From L to R – Mayor Consort James Green, Mayor Jeannette Matelot Green, Steve Bannister, Yvonne Maxwell (TAL Directors), Luise & Brian Pattinson (Book House, Thame)
Appropriately continuing on the history theme, the keynote lecture, tomorrow, Wednesday, will be the first event of the five-day festival and will feature Charles Spencer, talking about his latest book, The Killers of the King, January, 1649. The book is about what happened to all the signatories on the Death Warrant of King Charles 1st.
As Thame was intricately involved in the Civil War, being right on ‘the front line’, and the King based in Oxford, this lecture will be of particular interest to local people. And of course, the Parliamentarian General, John Hampden, died of his wounds after the battle of Chalgrove, here in Thame.
Tickets for Charles Spencer’s talk have already sold out but there are still tickets left for several of the 29 other events on during the festival, all listed on the TAL website at http://www.talfestival.org/
A plan to re-route a long-established footpath that crosses a proposed development across Cotmore Wells Farm, Thame, has been recommended for approval by Thame Town Council. At a meeting last night (14/10) Councillors expressed their ‘delight’ at the proposed changes because, they said, ‘It doesn’t go anywhere at the moment’.
CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) howevfer, has expressed its concerns about the footpath to the planning authority, South Oxfordshire District Council, in a submission commenting on the planning application for the units. Changes to the footpath are being proposed to accommodate two large, new industrial units on the land, with associated landscaping and carparking, which are currently awaiting planning permission.
In its response, CPRE states:
“As the public rights of way network east of Thame is very sparse and we have always considered it essential that additional public rights of way be created in the area to give residents of the town a greater variety of country walks accessible on foot from their homes, we are concerned that Section 2.7 of the Landscape & Visual Impact Appraisal states that ´this route could be stopped up without any impact on pedestrians`. We therefore wish to urge your Council to insist that this path be retained as part of any permission you may grant and be extended (a) to the eastern boundary of the development site (where an extension might, in due course, be created to Towersey) and (b) to link with the Phoenix Trail in order to retain the possibility of it forming part of future improvements of the rights of way network around Thame.”
The planning proposal for these new industrial units, was recentlly recommended for approval by Thame Town Council, even though the footprint of the proposed units is larger than allowed for in the Thame Neighbourhood Plan. The justification for this decision can be read in a letter from the Town Clerk to Thame.Net here: https://www.thame.net/archives/16686
