DOG owners who exercise their pets in the Cuttlebrook Nature Reserve are being asked to be more considerate, following an increase in dogs fouling the footpaths and disturbing the wild life.
Cuttlebrook volunteers during the recent BBC Oxford broadcast from the reserve
The Management committee are considering putting up more signs aimed at reminding dog owners of their responsibilities. Next year is the 21st anniversary of the reserve and there will be a special exhibition at Thame Museum sometime in the new year. Find out more about Cuttlebrook Nature Reserve on Facebook HERE
SINCE the publication of this item, the Manager of the Oxfam Bookshop has clarified the details of the wrapping service. Shop volunteers will wrap items purchased in the shop, using the customer’s Gift Wrap if they so choose and bring it with them, otherwise they can sell customers a roll of the shop’s own wrapping paper.
“If the customer does not wish to buy a full roll,” says Dick Jennens, ” we can use ours but we would encourage them to empty their pockets and purses into the donations tin.”
SINCE the launch of the Philippines appeal, over 100 local people have made the journey into the Oxfam Bookshop in Thame and donated generously to this appeal. But as the Manager, Dick Jennens says: “The bad news is still happening!
A Syrian child refugee struggling to keep warm (Courtsey of UNHCR)
While we in Thame are looking forward to beginning the Christmas festivities on Friday with our fun, Dickensian Christmas, Oxfam has launched its Syria Christmas Appeal, “Twelve Days of Giving” with the aim of raising £1 million.
Dick explains: “With winter approaching the plight of the Syria refugees is bleak. The children face a dire Christmas this winter. So far Oxfam have helped 250,000 people but we plan to help 650,000 refugees in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon over the winter season.
“The volunteers of the Oxfam bookshop in Thame have set a target of raising £1,500 during the twelve days of this appeal. The volunteers are planning to hold a ‘Have Your Purchases Gift-wrapped for Christmas’ on Tuesday, December 17, in exchange for a donation to this appeal. They provide the paper and ribbon is necessary.
“Please help and donate to the Oxfam Christmas Appeal.”
WHAT better way to walk off some of the over indulgence of the Christmas festivities, than to join this year’s Mayor’s New Year’s Day Walk around Thame?
The Cross Keys, Thame, where the Mayor’s New Year’s Day walk will finish
The walk will take in St. Mary’s Church, Thame Leisure Centre, Phoenix Trail, Chinnor Road and finish at The Cross Keys pub for a light lunch.
Lunch on offer: Chilli con carne with rice – £5. All proceeds go to the Mayor’s two charities, Safari and Thame Players.
Please contact Andy Gunn Tel: 01844 214295: or email: andygunn41@yahoo.co.uk to advise of your participating and for further information, and to let the organisers, 21st Century Thame’s Environment group, know of your dietary requirements.
Date: January 1, 2014. Walk to start: 11 am at Thame Town Hall.
FOUR Firefighters from Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service, based at Thame, are on top of the world after taking part in Operation Florian’s SkyTower Challenge in Manchester on Sunday, November 24, when they were the third fastest team to complete the challenge.
Two of the Thame Firefighting challenge team catch their breath after racing 25 floors in full breathing apparatus for charity
The challenge involved climbing 25 floors in full fire kit, while wearing breathing apparatus. The event is run in aid of Operation Florian, which provides equipment and helps train Firefighters in developing countries, as well as a fund in memory of FF Steve Hunt who was tragically killed while fighting a fire in Manchester earlier this year.
Watch Manager, Andy Ford, said ”The team did really well coming in third fastest; it was a tough challenge and for a very worthwhile cause.”
Firefighter Mark Nuns, one of the Thame team of four, said: “We felt privileged to have represented Thame. and Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue at this year’s SkyTower Challenge. I know we’re all really pleased with our times and looking forward to entering again next year – and aiming to do even better.”
The other Fire fighters who took part were Leo Shairp, Steve Simmons and Nick Sawyer.
Thame’s Neighbourhood Plan is proving itself to be a multi-award winner, scooping its third and fourth award at a ceremony held on Thursday, November 21, in Guildford. Hosted by the Royal Town Planning Institute South East, the evening celebrated the best planning practice that the region has to offer.
Town Cllrs Fickling, Lambert and Dyer (L to R)
Thame’s Mayor, Cllr Peter Lambert, Planning and Environment Committee Chairman, Cllr Helena Fickling and Cllr Mike Dyer represented Thame.
The Neighbourhood Plan received two regional awards; one for Innovate Use of the Planning Process and, most notably, the Regional Winner for 2013.
Cllr Mike Dyer spoke following the acceptance of the awards, saying that it was both “rewarding and humbling to have the community’s efforts acknowledged by leading professionals in the planning field.” He continued: “This further recognition of Thame’s leading role in planning, despite the Council having little previous experience in the area, was a great achievement for Thame.”
The Mayor, Cllr Peter Lambert, spoke passionately about the awards highlighting that the Plan and the awards it has received are: “….‘for the people of Thame, as they are the ones who formulated it; it belongs to them.”
LYDIA Feasey, from Thame, has beaten other regional finalists to win the Institution of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Apprentice of the Year, a prize which recognises the best and the brightest apprentices and technicians. Lydia received her prize at a prestigious awards ceremony hosted by Liz Bonnin, TV presenter and bio-chemist, on November 20, at The Brewery, in London.
Lydia Feasey is congratulated by the Mayor of Thame, Peter Lambert (photo by Frank Millar)
Lydia, who won the Thames Valley Apprentice of the Year award back in September, works at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Abingdon,Oxfordshire, the headquarters of the Joint European Torus, the world’s largest nuclear fusion project. As the Institutes recognition of Lydia explained: “Since fusion may be one of our main sources of energy in the future, the work Lydia is involved with is integral to the world’s future energy security. When critical parts from the reactor lining needed to be removed to be analysed, Lydia was called upon to help ensure that the removal and transportation was safe and successful.
“Lydia was responsible for the logistics and tracking of 500 components that needed to be removed. Each was worth up to £20,000, involved hazardous materials and contained invaluable data for the international fusion research programme. Every component made it to its destination safely and intact. Lydia has worked tirelessly to promote apprenticeships, and has been awarded several times already for the quality of her work.”
Besides winning a cash prize , Lydia was presented with a certificate and free entry and two years membership of the Institute. She recently went up to the Houses of Parliament and spoke to the members about apprenticeships and answered their questions in an effort to get their support for increasing the availability of such schemes.
Lydia was born and grew up in Thame, going to John Hampden school and the on to Lord Williams’s. After leaving school she managed to get an apprenticeship at the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy and has during that time won a number of awards but none so prestigious as the one she received in London last week.
While Lydia has now lived for almost a year in Grove, near Wantage with her partner, she is back in Thame most weekends, if only to check that her mums cooking is still up to standard!
BEST known for her role as Angie Watts in EastEnders, actress Anita Dobson will be taking a break from pantomime rehearsals at Aylesbury’s Waterside Theatre to turn on Thame’s Christmas lights during the town’s Dickensian Christmas event on December 6.
Anita Dobson, best known as Angie Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, will ‘light up’ Thame on December 6 !
The event promises to be jam-packed from 3.30pm with festive treats, and an events programme full of local talent.
Ride on the Victorian horse and carriage or miniature steam railway running from 3.30pm. Don’t miss the primary schools’ lantern parade from 5.30pm. There’ll be a host of stalls selling unique and original gifts, perfect for Christmas as well as food stalls offering everything from fudge to hog roast baps.
The stage events are planned to begin at 6pm and will feature community singing, accompanied by the junior school choirs and the Thame Concert Band. There’ll be appearances from Thame Players, Stagecoach Thame, and the Thame Chamber Choir plus live music from Ska Souls. Santa will also be taking a break from his festive duties to come and wish us all a Merry Christmas and announce the winner of the Top Hat Trail competition! Have you spotted any yet? Find as many as you can, write them on a piece of paper and return it to the Information Centre at the town hall. The first person out of the top hat with the most shops listed will win Thame Players’ tickets and vouchers for Wally’s Toy Shop.
A Thame woman who brandished knives at members of the public at Thame fair in September, has avoided prison after admitting having a bladed article in a public place .
Lavinia Ryan, 43, of Van Diemans Road, Thame, was said in court on Friday (22/11) to be “irrationally convinced” that her 12 year-old son had been kidnapped, and had threatened one stallholder that there would be “carnage” unless the boy was returned to her within an hour. Prosecuting, Ms Catherine Olliver described how Lavinia Ryan had walked through the fair with four knifes in each hand, and a meat cleaver, threatening fair ground operatives. She injured her head and hand during the ensuing struggle with security guards. Her son had in fact been playing with a friend.
Timothy Boswell, defending, told the Judge, Ian Pringle, that his client suffered from a personality disorder which was controllable with medication, and that because of her mental health problems, being sent to prison could increase Ryan’s violent behaviour.
A six months prison sentence was suspended for two years, with activity and supervision requirements attached, as well as an £80 victims’ surcharge.
FOUR Firefighters from Thame will be representing Oxfordshire Fire and Rescus in the UK Fire Fighters’ Operation Florian SkyTower Challenge. They will be competing against other brigades across the country by climbing 25 floors in full Firefighting kit while wearing and using BA (Breathing Apparatus).
The challenge will take place this Sunday, November 24, in Manchester and all funds being raised will go towards Operation Florian which provides equipment and helps train Firefighters in developing countries. Additionally funds are also being raised in memory of FF Steve Hunt, who was tragically killed while fighting a fire in Manchester earlier this year.
Mark Nunns, one of the four Thame fire fighters taking part in the SkyTower Challenge, said: “We hope to do Thame and Oxfordshire proud in the challenge.” The other three fire fighters from Thame are Steve Simmons, Nick Sawyer and Leo Shairp.
Anyone willing to show their support for the Thame fire fighting team and make a donation, is invited to visit: www.virginmoneygiving.com/thamefirestation
